Hat Tricks Highlight Opening Weekend

Published on October 20, 2008 under International Hockey League 2 (IHL 2) News Release


ROCHESTER, MI--- The International Hockey League 2008-09 season opened Friday night when the Flint Generals traveled to Bloomington to face-off against the PrairieThunder, while Fort Wayne visited Port Huron for a rematch of the 2008 Turner Cup Finals. The new season kicked off with three players recording hat tricks for three different teams, with two on Friday and one on Saturday.

Beginning his quest to become the all-time minor league goal scoring leader, Bloomington's Don Parsons tallied a total of four goals Friday, scoring a natural hat trick to start the contest for the PrairieThunder. Scoring the second hat trick of his professional career, Fort Wayne forward Dominic Osman scored three goals Friday night in Port Huron, while Todd Robinson returned to Muskegon in style Saturday, scoring three of the Lumberjacks four goals.

The Bloomington PrairieThunder gave the home crowd something to cheer about this weekend, winning both contests at U.S. Cellular Coliseum to open the 2008-09 season. Jarrod Skalde earned his first win as a head coach in the 6-2 victory over the visiting Flint Generals Friday and continued his winning ways into Saturday when the PrairieThunder scored four unanswered goals in the third period to defeat Kalamazoo 5-4.

Fort Wayne began their defense of the Turner Cup Friday night in Port Huron. The Komets took a 3-2 lead after the first period and continued the scoring into the second and third, defeating the Icehawks by a final score of 6-2. Fort Wayne raised their Turner Cup championship banner Saturday in front of a sellout crowd of 10,511, treating the fans to the highest scoring Komet home opener in their 57-year history. The Komets scored 11 goals Saturday finishing the night with an 11-3 victory over the Flint Generals.

AROUND THE "I"

Bloomington PrairieThunder - (2-0-0-0) - Don Parsons had a hat trick in the first 7:21 of the season-opening win over Flint on Oct. 17th, including the game winner. He also had a power play goal on Oct. 18th against Kalamazoo in third period to start team on four-goal spurt that resulted in 5-4 come-from-behind victory. The five goals give him 666 for his career and move him within 12 of breaking the record of 677 by former Flint coach Kevin Kerr for career goals scored in professional minor league hockey. Parsons set a U.S. Cellular Coliseum record for most goals scored in a game by a PrairieThunder player with four. Jon Booras set a PrairieThunder and U.S. Cellular Coliseum record with four assists in the season-opening win over Flint. Travis Granbois had the game-winning goal against his former team Kalamazoo in the victory Saturday. Granbois was traded to the PrairieThunder in the off-season. The PrairieThunder matched last season's 2-0 start to the season with opening weekend wins over Flint and Kalamazoo.

Flint Generals - (0-2-0-0) - Flint Generals will host Port Huron on Thursday in their home opener then visit Port Huron on Friday, and host Bloomington Saturday. The Generals beat the Icehawks 5-2 on opening night last year. The Flint Generals hope the month of October is as kind to them as it was last season. The Generals were 2-1-0-1 in October last year, but already are 0-2 in the 08-09 schedule. The Flint Generals loss in Bloomington was just the third they have suffered there in the last season plus this weekend. After enjoying early season success against the Port Huron Icehawks one year ago, the Flint Generals finished with a mark of 7-6-1-2. Greg Bullock had a terrific year against his former team with 18 points. Mike Alexiou and John DiPace each had 10 points. Three current Flint Generals Josef Fojtik, Greg Bullock, John DiPace and Jared Dumba combined for 18 goals against the Bloomington PrairieThunder last season. Three of those goals by Dumba were via the power play.

Fort Wayne Komets - (2-0-0-0) - The Komets started their defense of the IHL Turner Cup Championship undefeated after the first weekend of play. Veteran Colin Chaulk kicked off his sixth season as a Komet and 11th as a pro with three assists. Veteran winger Konstantin Shafranov started his fifth season with the Komets posting a three-point night with the game winning goals and two assists. Sebastian Laplante picked up his first IHL win. Al Sims has never lost a season opener as head coach of the Komets (6-0-0). Saturday the Komets celebrated their 57th home opener with an 11-3 ambushing of the Flint Generals. It was the first time the Komets scored more than eight goals in a home opener and it was the first time the Komets scored 11 goals in a game since April 9, 1994 when they upended the visiting Indianapolis Ice 11-5. It was the 37th home opening victory for Fort Wayne and fifth straight home-opening win. A sell-out crowd of 10,511 was the 16th home opening sell-out in Komet history (57 seasons).

Kalamazoo Wings - (0-1-0-0) - Nick Bootland coached his first-ever game on 10/18/08 versus Bloomington. Jeremy Stevenson recorded three points against Bloomington in his K-Wings debut. After missing his last season of junior hockey with an injury, Tommy Lange recorded his first-ever pro goal. Kalamazoo erupted for three goals in three minutes during the second period of last Saturday's game. This Friday is the first regular season game between the K-Wings and a Lumberjack team since the 1991-92 season. The K-Wings open its home schedule this Saturday versus Fort Wayne during the 5th Annual Orange Ice Game. Kalamazoo is 1-3-0-0 on the pumpkin colored surface; however, they are 1-0-0-0 versus the Komets in the Annual classic, defeating Fort Wayne in the second annual Orange Ice Game 4-1.

Muskegon Lumberjacks - (1-0-0-0) - The Lumberjacks scored their first goal of the new season in the first minute of the first period when newcomer Henry Kuster connected at the :43 mark of the stanza in their 4-3 opening night triumph over Port Huron. The Lumberjacks launched the new season with just 6-holdovers from last season's team, representing the fewest number of returnees to the club since 1992. With the ushering in of a new era, with new ownership, new team name, logo and colors, Muskegon has officially inaugurated the 49th consecutive year of pro hockey in Muskegon at Walker Arena. Last season, Muskegon led the IHL in one-goal victories with 20. In the first game of the new season, the 'Jacks claim victory, also by a one-goal margin. Beginning his third season behind the Muskegon bench, head coach Bruce Ramsay is set to equal Todd Nelson and Rich Kromm for the longest term of service as Muskegon bench boss.

Port Huron Icehawks - (0-2-0-0) - When the Icehawks travel to Flint on Thursday, both teams will be looking for their first win of the season after both dropping their first two games last weekend. It will be the first two meeting between the two teams after they split a pair of preseason games. The two teams will be seeing a lot of each other in the next several weeks. Four of Port Huron's next five games are versus their in-state rival. After opening weekend, the Icehawks lead the league in power play goals with three power play goals in ten opportunities. All three power play goals were scored by Jason Selleke. The Icehawks newcomer is currently tied for first in the league for power play goals with Bloomington's Don Parsons. Several Icehawks reached milestones during opening weekend. On Friday, defenseman Jamie Lovell played in his 200th career game and left wing Tab Lardner scored his 350th career point (one assist). Several other Icehawks are approaching milestones. Defenseman Ian Turner is two games shy of playing in his 300th career game and Jeremy Tucker is four games away from playing in his 150th career game.

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International Hockey League 2 Stories from October 20, 2008


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