Chicago Hounds Weekly Notes

Published on December 11, 2006 under International Hockey League 2 (IHL 2)
Chicago Hounds News Release


Hounds Winless in Last Three: The weekend started and ended the same way---with a loss. The Hounds played host to Quad City Friday night and were looking for their first three game winning streak but the Mallards had other plans. The Quad struck first in the opening period when a shot by Patrick Nadeau took an unfortunate bounce off a body in front and found its way past Hounds tender Marty Magers. Greg Koehler put himself in the right place when a dump-in by Chris Busby took a strange bounce of the glass right in front of the Mallards net and Koehler rifled the puck into an empty net at 17:28.

The rest of the game was taken over by the Mallards and Luke Stauffacher blasted a power-play goal at 12:26 which turned out to be the game winner. Later, Brett Pilkington made an amazing move around a defender and sprawling Magers to add the insurance goal and secure the Mallards victory. Magers finished the evening with 40 saves on 44 shots while Jason Tapp made 27 saves on 28 shots.

Hockey Night in Rockford: Having a tough time scoring first, the Hounds again surrendered the initial goal of the game. This time it was Rockford defensemen Matt Gens who hammered a one-timer past Magers on the power play at 12:05. In the second, it was Chris Busby, who leads all Hounds defensemen in points, netting a power-play goal past IceHogs net-minder Frederic Cloutier at 3:51. A goal by Mike Doyle put the IceHogs back ahead but the game was about to change pace. A nine-minute man-advantage was called in favor of Chicago after IceHogs forward Robin Big Snake dropped the gloves and went after Adam Kostichka, who wanted nothing to do with Big Snake. Snake was charged with a holding, instigator, fighting major and 10-minute misconduct penalty while the Hounds came away unscathed. Chicago couldn't muster the tying goal and this marked the end of the Hounds. In the third, it was Kaleb Betts fired an insurance marker past Magers, and Rockford was victorious by a score of 3-1. Magers did an admiral job in net turning away 27 of 30 shots, however; he was out dueled by Cloutier who shut the door on 23 of 24 shots.

Hounds Get Furied: Despite playing their forth game in five nights, Chicago came close to out-battling the leagues top team. Both goaltenders were excellent in the contest but Clayton Pool gets the notch in the win column as he stopped 23 of 24 Hounds shots while Magers turn aside 23 of 25.

In the first, Chicago surrendered a power-play goal to Rustyn Dolyny at 16:63. An early goal in the second period by Jon Insana put the Fury up by two goals and Muskegon was able to skate away with the win even though they surrendered a power-play goal to Maris Ziedins at 6:04 of the second. The third period ended scoreless and the Hounds ended the weekend losing three games in three nights.

Leading Scorers:

# PLAYERS POS GP G A PTS +/- PIM PPG PPA SHG SHA GWG SHOTS SPCT

11 Koehler, Greg RW 19 4 10 14 -2 22 2 5 0 0 1 66 .061

2 Busby, Chris D 19 3 11 14 +4 25 2 4 0 1 0 35 .086

9 Brolsma, Mike C 19 5 8 13 +5 31 1 2 0 1 0 37 .135

18 Cygan, Steve LW 17 4 7 11 -1 26 2 1 0 0 2 40 .100

Greg Koehler is starting to turn up the dial for the Hounds. After a slow start to the season, Koehler has been on a roll lately. Despite being shut out in Muskegon on Sunday night, Koehler had 6 points in four games. He is now tied for scoring leader on the team with defensemen Chris Busby. Busby also continues to make noise this season for the Hounds. The defenseman is not only tied for the team lead in points, but is also sporting a +4 on a team that hasn't won very many games this year.

Marty Magers Needs a Rest!

# GOALIES GP MIN W L SOL SO GA GAA SV SV%

31 Magers, Marty 18 1072:22 7 10 1 1 57 3.19 578 .910

35 Joy, Andrew 0 0:00 0 0 0 0 0 .00 0 .000

Magers workload might be an issue to Head Coach Greg Puhalski, but it isn't a factor for Marty Magers. Despite his teams lack of winning as of late, he still sports a save percentage of .910 and a goals against just above 3.19 (which was inflated after an unfortunately surrendering nine goals at the hands of the Wings.) Magers knows there is work to be done and he is still coming into his own. "I know I have played a lot this season but I still feel great and I'm not fatigued at all. I am young and I think I have plenty in the gas tank left for the rest of the year."

Hockey Clinic for Mites and Squirts in process: The Chicago Hounds Hockey team is in the process of putting together a Mite & Squirts clinic @ the Sears Centre on Sat Dec 16th from 9am to noon. The details will be more specific in regards to the on ice activities as the date nears. We are checking to see how much interest there is in the hockey community to put together a function of this nature. One hour on ice clinic with instruction from our head coach Greg Puhalski and assistant coach Steve Cromie. There will be stations set up on the ice that cover, stick handling; shooting, passing and all other facets of the game, the players of the Hounds will be handling the stations. The package will include access to the ice for the clinic and of course the tickets will be good for the game that night.

Standings:

Western Conference

Team GP W L SOL PTS PCT GF GA PIM HOME AWAY

Fort Wayne 20 14 6 0 28 .700 83 48 722 9-2-0 5-4-0

Rockford 22 11 9 2 24 .545 70 69 659 5-3-2 6-6-0

Quad City 21 7 11 3 17 .405 60 87 624 2-5-2 5-6-1

Chicago 19 7 11 1 15 .395 53 62 428 3-3-0 4-8-1

Bloomington 22 7 15 0 14 .318 48 77 474 5-6-0 2-9-0

With three loses in three games this weekend, the Hounds slipped a bit in the standings. They still have three games in hand over Bloomington and two games on Quad City. They currently reside in second to last place in the Western Conference and second to last overall. With games in hand, head coach Greg Puhalski said getting on the right track is very important, "We know that each game is going to make the difference in April. We can't afford to sit back and lose games now and expect to be in the hunt down the stretch."

Next Up...The Fort Wayne Komets: Wednesday night will mark the first time the Hounds will host the Fort Wayne Komets. Komets head coached turned Hounds bench general will attempt for the second time to defeat his old team. In their first meeting this season in Fort Wayne, the Hounds lost by a score of 6-2. Right now, the Komets are on top of the division and the Hounds know this is a big opportunity to change their current losing ways. "It's a game this team really wants to win, not only for Chief, but also for ourselves. We know that we haven't been great lately, and it Wednesday would be a perfect time for this team to make a statement with a victory," says Hounds forward Maris Ziedins.

Home Stretch Coming Up: The longest home stretch in Hounds history is coming up in the next two weeks. Chicago will take on Ft.Wayne, Flint, Muskegon, Rockford and Elmira in the next two weeks. It's always nice to avoid a bus trip whenever possible and the Hounds players find the home-stretch will be much needed, "We have had a few home games here and there, but staying around for nearly the next two weeks is going to be great. The more we play at the Centre, the better we feel as a team, " remarked Hounds forward Todd Grant.

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International Hockey League 2 Stories from December 11, 2006


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