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Lumberjacks Stay Hot Winning Five Straight

November 16, 2009 - International Hockey League 2 (IHL 2) News Release


ROCHESTER, MI--- The Muskegon Lumberjacks have been on fire as of late, currently riding a five-game winning streak. They won all three games played this past week, defeating the Icehawks 5-3 Wednesday, the Generals 6-3 Friday and the Komets 2-1 Sunday. The 'Jacks have earned 11 of the 12 possible points available over the last two weeks. Muskegon, who is celebrating their 50th anniversary of professional hockey, currently has three of the top five leading scorers in the IHL with Robin Bouchard leading the league with 22 points (10 goals, 12 assists). Followed close behind Bouchard are Todd Robinson with 20 points (6 goals, 14 assists) and John DiPace with 19 points (6 goals, 13 assists).

The Bloomington PrairieThunder have also been on a tear at the US Cellular Coliseum so far, winning six straight home games to open the season. They defeated the Dayton Gems 5-3 Friday and the Quad City Mallards 5-2 Saturday to extend the home winning streak to six games. The six wins to start the season is the best start for Bloomington in PrairieThunder franchise history. Fort Wayne is currently the only other unbeaten team on home ice, winning four straight so far this season.

The Quad City Mallards won their first home game of the season Sunday when the Bloomington PrairieThunder came to town to wrap up a home- and-home series with the Mallards. The PrairieThunder got on the board first in the opening period when defenseman Russ Smith knocked in his third goal of the season. Both teams traded goals in the second and the Mallards knocked in two more in the third to lead by a score of 3-2. With four seconds left in the game, Bloomington's Craig Macdonald scored the game tying goal on the PrairieThunder power play after Mallards defenseman Jason Goulet was whistled for hooking with less than a minute left. With neither team scoring in the overtime session, the Mallards saw their first shootout of the season. Mallard forward Mike Zbriger scored the eventual game-winning goal in the shootout in the fourth round, helping seal the 4-3 victory at the iwireless Center.

AROUND THE "I"

Bloomington PrairieThunder (2-0-0-1)- The PrairieThunder are undefeated in six games at U.S. Cellular Coliseum this season and has won seven straight at home, dating back to last year. The six straight victories is one shy of the longest overall home winning streak, which was set last season. The longest undefeated overall streak at home is nine, also set a year ago. Craig Macdonald has a string of three straight games with two goals. Ryan Finnerty has scored at least one point in 11 of the PrairieThunder's 13 games. Macdonald has scored at least one point in 10 of 13. Defenseman Russ Smith had three goals and 10 points in 33 games last season. He already has three goals and nine points in 13 games. Goaltender Andrew Martin has a 3-1-0-2 record in the last six games since replacing the injured Paulo Colaiacovo.

Flint Generals (0-3-0-1)- Through 14 games played, the Gens have proven to be a first period team, scoring 15 of their 32 goals in the opening session and allowing 12 of the 45 goals against. The second and third period opponents have found the back of the net 15 and 16 times respectively, where as the Gens have only scored a combined 17 goals. The Gens also shoot more in the first, outshooting opponents 141 to 126.Jamie Schaafsma has been one of the best players for the Gens thus far. He leads the team with 14 points, six of which are goals three more than the number two goal getters; Tony Tuzzolino is second with eight points. He accumulated three assists and one goal in the last three games. With two goals in Friday's loss to Muskegon, Bryan Smolinski reached 300 regular season career goals.

Fort Wayne Komets (2-1-0-0)- Saturday's 2-1 overtime win against Dayton was the Komets' first home overtime win since April 9, 2008 when the Komets beat Muskegon 4-3. Fort Wayne's Saturday night crowd of 9,671 gives the Komets an average attendance after four home games of 8,715, second in all of minor league pro hockey to the AHL's Hershey. $10,000 winner: Komet fan Jeff Bonar won $10,000 at Friday night's game, becoming the first Score Prediction Contest winner in eight years. After registering online at www.komets.com, Bonar correctly guessed that the Komets would lead 1-0 at the end of the first period, 2-1 at the end of the second, and 2-1 at the end of the third. By correctly guessing the scores at the end of each period, Bonar collected $10,000 courtesy of Fort Wayne area Jeep and Chrysler Dealers.

Muskegon Lumberjacks (3-0-0-0)- The -˜Jacks currently own the IHL's second best home winning streak of the season at five games. The Lumberjacks last loss at home was back on October 23rd, their second home game of the season when they fell to Dayton 7-5. When scoring the game's first goal this season, the -˜Jacks are 6-1-0-0. Defensively, the Lumberjacks have shown marked improvement, having yielded only 20 goals against in the last nine games for a goals against average of 2.17. Rookie goaltender Matt Lundin is perfect as a pro at 3-0-0-0, posting both of his team's road wins so far this season. Goaltender Sebastien Centomo is on a three-game winning streak, all at home with a 2.00 goals against average and a.913 save percentage in that span. All five of his victories have come at home.

Port Huron Icehawks (2-1-0-0)- The Icehawks beat Flint 2-1 Sunday night, improving to a league-best 4-0-0-0 in one- goal games this season. In each of these wins, Port Huron's game-winning goal has come in the third period or later, with one shootout win. Icehawks defenseman Jason Selleke saw his first action of the season this weekend after beginning the year on the Injured Reserve list. He had an assist and a +2 rating in two games. Scoring has been evenly distributed for the Icehawks this season. They have scored ten goals in the first period, 11 in the second and 13 in the third. Icehawks forward Cory Stillman reached a career milestone on Saturday, netting his 100th career goal. The Icehawks continued their stingy defense on the penalty kill this weekend killing off 90% of all penalties this season, leading the IHL.

Quad City Mallards (1-2-0-0)- The line of Terry Harrison, Mike Zbriger and Patrick Levesque has scored 12 of the Mallards' 21 goals on the season. Harrison is in the midst of a six-game point scoring streak (4-5-9). Zbriger (4-4-8) is also riding a six-game point streak. Goaltender Kyle Jones (37 saves) Sunday posted his first win as a Mallard as Quad City downed Bloomington 4-3 in a shootout. Sunday's win ended the Mallards' seven game winless streak. The victory was Quad City's first since an opening defeat of the Generals in Flint on October 17th and was also the Flock's first home win of the season. Sunday also marked the first time Quad City has gone to the shootout this season. Ryan Fultz picked up his first Quad City Saturday against Bloomington and scored his first Mallard goal Sunday against the PrairieThunder.

Dayton Gems (1-1-1-0)- Two rookies are in the top three in scoring among IHL rookies. Jonathan Ornelas and Michael Mullen are tied for second place, just a point back of Muskegon's Matt Krug. The two rookies have been doing it on the specialty teams with Ornleas' two power play goals and Mullen's four power play helpers. The Dayton Gems hope that two of the three games against the Flint Generals will get them out of their current two game losing streak. The Gems have played three thrilling games against Flint, winning all three contests. Dayton has given up just six goals in three games versus Flint and Ryan Mior has been solid in every game against the Generals. The Dayton Gems are 1-2-0-0 versus teams on Sunday this season. The Gems have a total of 14 Sunday games including five away from Hara Arena.

UPCOMING GAMES IN THE IHL

(Note: All Times are Local)

(Note: All Times are Local)

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Port Huron @ Muskegon

10:30 a.m.

Friday, November 20, 2009

Quad City @ Port Huron

7:30 p.m.

Dayton @ Flint

7:30 p.m.

Muskegon @ Fort Wayne

8:00 p.m.

Saturday, November 21, 2009

Quad City @ Muskegon

7:00 p.m.

Dayton @ Port Huron

7:30 p.m.

Fort Wayne @ Bloomington

7:05 p.m.

Sunday, November 22, 2009

Flint @ Dayton

5:00 p.m.

Fort Wayne @ Quad City

4:05 p.m.



International Hockey League 2 Stories from November 16, 2009


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