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'Jacks Earn Huber Trophy; Playoffs Start Thursday

April 19, 2010 - International Hockey League 2 (IHL 2) News Release


ROCHESTER, MI--- It took the Muskegon Lumberjacks 75 games to capture the regular season championship, earning the Huber Trophy after a 2-0 win over Dayton Friday night. The Lumberjacks finished the season with a 51-20-1-4 record, earning 107 points, just two more than second place Fort Wayne (105). The 51 wins equaled, for the third time, the most single season wins in the modern era of Muskegon professional hockey. The Lumberjacks will be presented the Huber Trophy on Friday, April 23rd at their first home playoff contest.

The 2010 Turner Cup Playoffs are officially set and will begin on Thursday, April 22nd. With Muskegon, Fort Wayne and Port Huron securing their spots, the fourth seed was still up for grabs going into the last game of the season between the Bloomington PrairieThunder and Flint Generals. With Flint holding the tie breaker, the PrairieThunder needed a win and the Generals to lose to earn their spot. While both teams lost Sunday, Flint had more victories on the season, earning their second playoff appearance in the last three years. First-place Muskegon will take on the fourth seeded Flint, while the second-place Komets will face-off with number three seeded Port Huron, each playing a best-of-seven series.

Muskegon center Todd Robinson led the league in points for the second straight season, scoring 109 points. He completed the 2009-10 season leading the league in assists, dishing out 88, with 37 of those coming on the Lumberjacks power play. Wrapping up the season leading the league in goals scored with 60 was Muskegon's Robin Bouchard. Bouchard is ranked second in the league in scoring with 101 points.

AROUND THE "I"

Bloomington PrairieThunder (0-2-0-1)- The PrairieThunder ended the season with a club-record 73 points and tied the teamrecord for wins in a season with 31. Craig Macdonald had a career-high 90 points with a career-high and team record 44 goals. He also had 46 assists during the season. The PrairieThunder converted just three of 59 power play opportunities in its last 10 games. The PrairieThunder tied for fourth in the regular season standings, the highest finish in team history. They just barely missed making the playoffs for the first time in franchise history, losing the tie breaker to Flint, who had 33 wins. Zach Pearson, Justin Sawyer and Craig Macdonald were the only members of the PrairieThunder to have played in all 76 regular season games.

Dayton Gems (0-1-0-0)- The Gems played the final game of their inaugural season on Friday taking on the Muskegon Lumberjacks. Dayton was shut out in an exciting evening to end the 2009-10 season. The Gems ended the year as the least penalized team in the league. Captain Greg Labenski ended the season in the top 10 of defensive league scorers with five goals and 22 assists and finished in third place in shots on goal with 172. Gems netminder Derek MacIntyre played more than any other goalie this season with 53 games and 3059:18 minutes. He had the most saves with 1570 and is tied for the most shutouts with three. Rookie Mike Vaskivuo finished the season leading the Gems in scoring, netting 25 goals and dishing out 24 assists for 49 points in 75 games played.

Flint Generals (2-1-0-0)- The Generals earned their second trip to the playoffs in the last three years after winning the tie breaker with Bloomington by having two more wins on the regular season. The Generals will face-off against the Muskegon Lumberjacks beginning in Muskegon on Friday. Flint had four players finish in the top 20 IHL in scoring- Jamie Schaafsma with 65 points, rookie John Mori with 64 points, John Ronan with 64 points and Captain Pascal Rheaume with 58 points. Mori led the IHL in shorthanded goals, scoring a total of six. The Generals rank second in the IHL in shorthanders with 15. Rookie netminder Rob Nolan had a stellar season, finishing the year second in minutes played (2679:40), second in saves (1,339) and tied for fourth in save percentage (.912).

Fort Wayne Komets (2-0-0-1)- The Komets completed the final week earning two wins and a shootout loss to cap the regular season slate with an eight-game unbeaten streak (7-0-0-1) and seven-game home winning streak. The Komets reached 100 points for the fourth straight year and 15th time in the 58-year history of the franchise. The Komets reached 50 wins for the ninth time overall and the fifth time in the last seven seasons.A sell-out crowd of 10,480 watched the Komets clip the visiting Flint Generals 2-1 in the final home game of the regular season to give Fort Wayne a league-leading 7,825 per game average attendance for the year, topping last year's mark by 15 fans per game and setting a new Fort Wayne regular season per-game average attendance record.

Muskegon Lumberjacks (1-1-0-0)- In his four years, spanning two separate terms of service behind the Muskegon bench, Coach Rich Kromm has amassed 181 victories for an average of over 45 wins per season. For the second consecutive season, Muskegon compiled the IHL's best home record at 30-7-0-1 for a healthy win percentage of .803. The two longest home win streaks of the season were 11 consecutively, which equaled the IHL's best in that category and eight straight home wins. Robin Bouchard (101) earned his fourth 100-point season and his third with Muskegon. Goaltender Sebastien Centomo led the IHL in victories with 28. IHL Defenseman of the Year Matt Krug was the league's top scoring defenseman this season and led all defense in goals (14) and power play goals (9).

Port Huron Icehawks (2-10-0-0)- The Icehawks finished the 2009-10 regular season with arguably the best special teams units in the IHL. Port Huron converted on a league-best 22% of their power play opportunities. Though they finished second in penalty kill percentage at 83.9%, no IHL team allowed fewer power play goals than the Icehawks at just 51. Rookie goalie Raffaele D'Orso excelled in the first game of his professional career Sunday night against Bloomington. D'Orso stopped the first 27 shots he faced and turned away 39 of 40 shots overall. Port Huron had three iron men appear in every game of the 2009-10 season. Mickael Bedard, Nick Lindberg and Jamie Lovell played in each of the Icehawks' 76 games.

Quad City Mallards (1-0-0-1)- The Mallards suffered just one regulation loss in their last six games (4-1-0-1). Chris Lipsett (28-37-65) and Patrick Levesque (30-35-65) finished tied for the team lead in points. Levesque, Lipsett, Obi Aduba and Joel Gasper were the only four Mallards who played in each of the team's 76 regular season games. Kyle Jones made 47 saves Saturday while making his first start since March 27th. Jones backstopped the Mallards to one point in their season finale- a 2-1 shootout loss at Fort Wayne. Jerad Kaufmann made eight straight starts in goal for Quad City prior to Saturday. Friday night's win over the Komets ended the Mallards' four game losing streak against Fort Wayne. The Mallards finished the season with a 29-35-4-8 record for 70 points in their inaugural season in the IHL.



International Hockey League 2 Stories from April 19, 2010


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