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Great goaltending leads Fury, IceHogs, and K-Wings to unbeaten weeks

February 19, 2007 - International Hockey League 2 (IHL 2) News Release


LAKE ST. LOUIS, MO --- The Muskegon Fury (2-0-0), Kalamazoo Wings (3-0-0) and the Rockford IceHogs (3-0-1) went undefeated last week in United Hockey League (UHL) action behind the strength of great goaltending. Each with a goals against average (GAA) lower than 2.00, Muskegon's Ryan Cyr picked up both Fury victories, Kalamazoo's Ryan Nie recorded three consecutive shutouts and Rockford's Frederic Cloutier played 240:00 minutes to post a 3-0-1 record.

The Eastern Conference's top team, Muskegon, picked up four points to remain atop the standings with back-to-back wins over the Elmira Jackals. On Friday, Cyr stopped 39 shots en route a 4-3 win. The next night he entered the game in a relief role and shut out the Jackals for 44:27 while making 21 saves for the 4-3 victory. Cyr ended the week with a .952 save percentage (SPCT) and a 1.73 GAA. The two victories improved his home record to 9-1-0 and overall record to 12-3-1 this season.

Nie, the league's hottest goaltender, has recorded three consecutive shutouts and four shutouts in his last five starts. Making 24 saves, he shut out Elmira on Wednesday, 3-0. He followed that performance with a 26-save blanking of the Port Huron Flags on Friday and a 24-save shutout against the Flint Generals on Saturday. He is currently on a scoreless streak of 203:39 minutes and leads the UHL with a 2.23 GAA. The scoreless stretch of 203:39 minutes by the K-Wings breaks the UHL team record of 189:27 minutes of shutout hockey held by the 2005-06 Fort Wayne Komets.

Rockford's Frederic Cloutier continued his hot streak after being named the UHL's Southern Sports Supply Goaltender of the Week last week. In four games he only gave up seven goals for a 1.75 GAA, and he made 116 saves for a .943 SPCT. After giving up one score in a 2-1 shootout loss on Wednesday, Cloutier beat the Chicago Hounds, 4-3, on Friday, the Quad City Mallards, 3-2, on Saturday and Chicago, 2-1, in a shootout on Sunday. He has made 18 consecutive starts for the IceHogs and has a 15-1-2 record over the stretch.

SHUT 'EM DOWN - Kalamazoo's Ryan Nie is approaching the all-time UHL scoreless streak for a goaltender. His current mark of 203:39 minutes is 44:53 shy of the record for consecutive shutout minutes of 248:31 set by Fort Wayne's Kevin St. Pierre in the 2000-01 season.

MOVIN' ON UP - With two wins this past week, Fort Wayne's Kevin St. Pierre moved into second place in career UHL wins with 166. He trails only former Muskegon Fury and Danbury Trashers goaltender Sylvain Daigle who recorded 187 wins during his UHL tenure.

IT'S ALL ABOUT THE BENJAMINS - Muskegon's Todd Robinson is one point away (33g, 66a) from reaching the 100-point plateau for the third time in his UHL career. He had 106 points in 72 games played during the 2003-04 season and 100 points in 66 games played during the 2000-01 season. With his next point, it will be the 96th time in UHL history that the 100-point plateau has been reached in a single season.

IT'S TRICKY - Bloomington center Trevor Baker recorded the first hat trick in PrairieThunder history in a 5-4 loss at Flint on Friday. It was the first hat trick in his eight-year professional career.

Port Huron center Mark Cadotte tallied his first hat trick of the season on Saturday in a 5-3 win over Bloomington. He lit the lamp on 3-of-4 shots in the game.

BACK TO LIFE - The new Chicago Hounds website is now online. Last week, the site was down in order to revamp and give the team better access for quicker updates. Director of Media Relations and Broadcasting, Jason Shaya says that fans will get quicker updates and more in-depth coverage of the Hounds, "We have direct control of the site and this will be a great thing for the organization and the fans of the Chicago Hounds. Our fans want the latest information regarding promotions, game recaps and ticket information and now we can give them that faster than ever."

AROUND THE LEAGUE

Bloomington PrairieThunder - (1-2-0) - Of Bloomington's 16 wins this season, three have been over Western Conference leader Fort Wayne, including a 2-1 victory on Sunday...Entering this past weekend, the PrairieThunder had been allowing 36.5 shots per game. They only gave up an average of 32.0 shots per game last week...Defenseman Jarad Bourassa has scored six points in the last five games...Forward B.J. Gaustad scored four points last week after only scoring one point in the previous 12 games...Defenseman Sam Miller scored his first goal of the season on Saturday.

Chicago Hounds - (0-3-1) - For the second straight week, forward Drew Otten powered the Hounds' offense. He tallied five goals and one assist in four games. He is on a nine-game point streak and a four-game goal streak...Goaltender Brenden Cuthbert stopped 35-of-36 shots against Rockford on Sunday in a 2-1 shootout win...Chicago converted 7-of-30 power play chances last week (.233)...Left wing Steve Cygan leads the team in scoring with 29 points (13g, 16a)...In four games this week, Chicago will play two at home and two on the road.

Elmira Jackals - (0-4-0) - The Jackals embarked on a four-game road trip last week and came away winless. Elmira has lost five straight games and is 1-5-0 under new head coach Paul Gillis...The Jackals return home for a five-game stretch, including three matches this week. Elmira is .500 (13-13-1) in the friendly confines of First Arena...Goaltender Dave Lemanowicz made 92 saves last week in over 150 minutes of action...Left wing Marc Lefebvre scored his second goal of the season, a power play tally, in a 6-1 loss to Quad City on Sunday.

Flint Generals - (1-1-1) - Left wing Bobby Reynolds scored three goals in three games last week, including the game-winner on Friday against Bloomington...Goaltender Jason Muzzatti recorded every decision in net last week, making 83 saves and posting a 2.67 GAA...After losing in a shootout on Wednesday, the Generals are now 1-5 in shootouts this season. Flint has only scored three goals on 29 shots during extra sessions...Among defenseman, Gerard Miller is fourth in scoring with 37 points and Shaun Fisher is tied for ninth with 26 points.

Fort Wayne Komets - (2-2-0) - Goaltender Kevin St. Pierre picked up his 30th win of the season for the fifth time in his career with a 4-3 decision at Chicago on Wednesday. In the same game, Head Coach Pat Bingham coached his 200th career UHL game...On Sunday, the Komets six game home winning streak was snapped by Bloomington, 2-1...Defenseman Guy Dupuis is on a seven-game home point streak (2g, 10a)...Center J.C. Ruid ranks second in the UHL in points with 70...The Komets have a winning record against this week's four opponents (11-4-0).

Kalamazoo Wings - (3-0-0) - Center Kory Karlander set the K-Wings record for most game-winners in a Kalamazoo UHL career (12) on Friday in a 5-0 win at Port Huron...Left wing Nick Bootland tied Karlander's record the following night in a 3-0 victory against Flint and also set the K-Wings UHL single-season record for game winners with seven...Karlander is on a seven-game point streak...Kalamazoo plays two home games this week and Wednesday's tilt against Rockford is the first of two Education Day Games for the K-Wings.

Muskegon Fury - (2-0-0) - With the Fury's 4-3 win over Elmira on Friday, Muskegon won their 40th game for the fourth consecutive season and for the 10th time in the past 13 seasons...The last three Fury wins have been by a one-goal margin. Muskegon leads the UHL in one-goal triumphs with 18...With two assists on Friday, center Todd Robinson became the Fury's all-time assists leader with 422...The Fury are the first team in the UHL this season to have two 30-goal scorers in Robinson (33) and left wing Mike Watt (31). They both rank in the top five in the UHL in points.

Port Huron Flags - (2-1-0) - Goaltender Dustin Traylen picked up the decision in both of Port Huron's victories last week. He made 60 saves for a .923 SPCT and is on a three-game winning streak...With his shootout tally on Wednesday, right wing Bobby Kukulka moved into a second place tie in the UHL in shootout goals with five...Left wing Ben Gustavson scored his first goal as Flag on Wednesday against Flint...Center Mark Cadotte's hat trick on Saturday against Bloomington was just the second three-goal game by a Port Huron player this season.

Quad City Mallards - (3-1-0) - The Mallards equaled their longest unbeaten streak of the year with a 6-0-1 stretch from Feb. 2-16...Defenseman Steve MacIntyre played his 300th career game on Saturday in Rockford...Forwards Luke Stauffacher and Sean Starke are both on three-game point streaks...Goaltender Jason Tapp went 2-1-0 last week with a .928 SPCT and a 2.01 GAA...Forward Blake Stewart recorded his first multiple goal game as a Mallard with a pair of tallies in a 6-1 victory over Elmira on Sunday...Quad City plays 3-of-4 games on the road this week.

Rockford IceHogs - (3-0-1) - Despite the fact that the IceHogs top three scorers (center Preston Mizzi, center Nicolas Corbeil and right wing Jesse Bennefield) are on loan to AHL clubs, Rockford was undefeated on the week (3-0-1)...Rockford is currently on a club-record nine-game home winning streak, the longest in the UHL this season...Center Bryce Cockburn had his club-record tying 12-game point streak come to an end on Saturday in a 3-2 win over Quad City...Beginning on Sunday in Chicago, Rockford will play 10-of-12 games on the road.

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International Hockey League 2 Stories from February 19, 2007


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