Generals On A Roll

March 8, 2010 - International Hockey League 2 (IHL 2) News Release


ROCHESTER, MI--- The Flint Generals have been on a roll as of late, going 2-1-0-0 during Week 21 of the 2009-10 season, earning both wins against the third-place Fort Wayne Komets. Saturday, the Generals snapped the Komets six-game win streak with a 3-1 win at Perani Arena. Flint wrapped up the home-and-home series with Fort Wayne with a 3-2 win Sunday in Fort Wayne, where the Generals had not won a game in regulation yet this season. Flint goaltender Sergei Zvyagin earned his first victory of the season after joining Flint on February 27th. Zvyagin made a league-high 54 saves while the Komets peppered him with a league-high 56 shots on goal to earn his first victory as a member of the Generals.

The Generals have strung together a 3-2 -0-0 record in their last five games, playing their last five contests against the second and third place teams in the IHL, the Port Huron Icehawks and Komets. They have won one against Port Huron and two against Fort Wayne, putting them seven points behind the Bloomington PrairieThunder (57 points), who currently hold the fourth and final playoff spot with six weeks left in the regular season. The PrairieThunder do have two games in hand on the Generals to date, but play against Flint five more times over the next six weeks.

The second-place Icehawks battled two in a row against the first-place Muskegon Lumberjacks over the weekend, with the Icehawks skating away with back-to-back victories over the 'Jacks. The Icehawks climbed within seven points of the Lumberjacks after winning both games. The Lumberjacks have gone 5-5-0-0 in their last 10 while the Icehawks have gone 7-2-0-1 in their last 10.     AROUND THE "I"

Bloomington PrairieThunder (0-2-0-0)- Forward Craig Macdonald has been using a balancing act to lead the team in scoring with 65 points. He has 32 goals and 33 assists. Macdonald and forward Jon Booras continue to rank among the IHL scoring leaders, where Macdonald (65 points) is third and Booras (62 points) is tied for fourth. Forward Zach Pearson has scored at least one point in seven of the last 10 games. The PrairieThunder's last four goals have been on the power play. The number four has been in the final score of the PrairieThunder's last four games and seven of the last eight. Forward Matt McIlvane was called up to the Peoria Rivermen Thursday, making his AHL debut. He scored his first AHL goal in the game, which helped propel the Rivermen to a 4-3 win over Grand Rapids.   Dayton Gems (1-2-0-0)- Rookie forward Justin McCutcheon currently leading all rookies, and is second in the IHL, in shooting percentage, scoring six goals on 32 shots, for a .188 shooting percentage. Forward John Snowden continues to rack up the shots on goal, making 202 shots in 55 games played so far this season, which ties him for fourth among IHL players. Goaltender Derek MacIntyre is second among IHL goaltenders in saves with 1,027, just 19 behind league-leader Rob Nolan with Flint. The Gems most prolific scoring period is the second, where they have scored 65 goals for and allowed 58 goals against. The second stanza is also the period where they produce the most shots on net, outshooting the opponent 667 to 652.   Flint Generals (2-1-0-0)- With their win Sunday in Fort Wayne, Flint has taken control of sixth place in the IHL standings. The Generals have been tied for sixth with the Dayton Gems over the last few weeks. Flint is currently four points behind fifth place Quad City and seven points behind Bloomington who holds the fourth and final playoff spot. John Ronan has the current longest point streak with 10 points in six games. Ronan has taken the lead in team scoring for the Generals with 48 points. Bryan Smolinski has the fourth longest active streak with eight points in five games. Last week (week twenty) was the first time in three weeks the Generals were not represented in the weekly awards (Mori won Rookie of the Week for weeks 17 and 19, Rob Nolan won Goalie of the Week for week 18).

  Fort Wayne Komets (2-2-0-0)- P.C. Drouin (LW) dished his 500th career assist in Fort Wayne's 4-1 win at Bloomington Friday. The Komets directed an IHL season-high 56 shots on Flint goalie Sergei Zvyagin in Sunday's 3-2 loss in Fort Wayne. Sean O'Connor (RW) had an IHL high 12 shots in the game. The Fort Wayne team record for shots on goal in a game is 80, set against Dayton March 27, 1965 in a 12-1 win. The Komets currently lead the IHL with 1,963 shots in 56 games for a per-game average of 35.05 shots. In addition, the Komets also have the stingiest defense allowing an IHL lowest average of 29.5 shots per game. The Komets scored on 25% of their power plays (4/16) and were successful on all but one penalty kill (14/15, 93.3%) in the four games played to lead the IHL with an 87.2% penalty kill efficiency rate.   Muskegon Lumberjacks (1-2-0-0)- When the 'Jacks opened their 13-game schedule for the month of March last Wednesday, they began the month with a 7-1 in over Quad City in Moline, IL, earning their 40th victory of the season. The 40th victory plateau was reached for the 12th time over the past 16 seasons. In his second tour of duty behind the Muskegon bench, head coach Rich Kromm has guided the franchise to three of those 40-plus victory seasons in his combined four years at the helm. For only the third time this season, the 'Jacks have sustained back-to-back defeats after they trembled twice in Port Huron the past weekend. Overall, they are 8(5-3-0) in their last 8- starts; last 17(12-5-0); last 24(18-6-0); last 27(20-7-0).   Port Huron Icehawks (3-0-0-0)- Port Huron was the only IHL team to go undefeated this week, and the six-point effort keeps the Icehawks in second place in the standings. Port Huron's successful offensive week has started many point streaks for Icehawks skaters. Derek Patrosso, Nick Lindberg and Brandon Naurato are all riding five-game point streaks, and Brandon Kaleniecki has a goal four straight games. Eight Icehawks scored at least one point in each of this week's three games. The Icehawks went 7-15 on the power play this week to hold their first-place spot in power play percentage this season. Port Huron has the only power play unit to score on more than 20% of their man-advantage opportunities this season.   Quad City Mallards (2-2-0-0)- With yesterday's win over Bloomington, the Mallards pulled within three points of the fourth place PrairieThunder and the final IHL playoff spot. With yesterday's win the Mallards improved to 6-0-0-0 on home ice against Bloomington this season. Tyler Kindle scored power play goals in each of the Mallards' last three games. His goal last Friday night against Dayton was his first for Quad City. Kindle collected points on six of eight power play goals scored by the Mallards in three games last weekend and was on the ice for all eight power play goals. The Mallards went 8-for-15 on the power play in three games over the weekend. Eight of the Flock's 11 total goals during that three game stretch came on the power play.



International Hockey League 2 Stories from March 8, 2010


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