PrairieThunder Hits Road

March 9, 2010 - International Hockey League 2 (IHL 2)
Bloomington PrairieThunder News Release


BLOOMINGTON, Ill. - Battling to keep its hold on the fourth and final postseason berth in the International Hockey League playoffs, the Bloomington PrairieThunder hits the road for four games in five days.

The treacherous road trip begins Wednesday with a 6:30 p.m. contest against Fort Wayne at the Allen County War Memorial Coliseum. The PrairieThunder then heads to Port Huron for a 6:30 p.m. contest Friday before going to Dayton for a 6:30 p.m. encounter Saturday.

The trip concludes Sunday with a 4:05 p.m. contest at Flint. The game was originally scheduled for Feb. 16, but was postponed by Flint officials. All games can be heard on WJBC-FM (93.7).

Life on the road, in general, hasn't been the greatest for the PrairieThunder this season with an 8-13-0-5 record. However, Bloomington has won three of its last five games away from U.S. Cellular Coliseum. The trip marks the final time the PrairieThunder will play at Fort Wayne and Dayton in the regular season.

Bloomington enters the trip with a 25-24-2-5 record and 57 points for a fourth-place showing in the standings. The PrairieThunder leads Quad City by three points, while Flint (22-30-2-4, 50 points) lingers seven points back with Dayton (22-33-3-1, 48 points) nine behind.

Fort Wayne (35-18-1-2, 73 points) is 16 points ahead of Bloomington for third, but only three points behind Port Huron (36-18-0-4, 76 points) for second.

The PrairieThunder will be facing teams that have a combined 65-37-3-6 record on home ice. Port Huron leads the pack with a 20-8 mark, while Fort Wayne is 18-6-1-1, Flint 14-9-1-4 and Dayton 13-14-1-1.

Fort Wayne has lost three of its last five games at home, including a 4-3 overtime setback to the PrairieThunder the last time the teams met in War Memorial Coliseum on Feb. 17. Fort Wayne leads the season series 7-2-1-1 and is 2-1-1-1 at home against Bloomington.

The PrairieThunder is 1-3-1-1 against Port Huron and still has six games remaining against the IceHawks. Bloomington is 1-0-0-1 in Port Huron and hasn't played there since a Nov. 6-7 weekend series. Four of the remaining six games against the IceHawks are in Port Huron.

Bloomington is 7-1-0-1 against Dayton with a 3-0-0-1 record on the Gems' ice. The PrairieThunder is 6-1-0-0 against Flint and 2-1-0-0 at Perani Arena. Bloomington has five games remaining with the Generals, including three in Flint.

Bloomington's Craig Macdonald and Jon Booras continue to rank as the No. 3 and 4 scorers in the league with 65 and 62 points, respectively. However, Booras is nursing a partially torn quad tendon above his right knee cap and won't make the weekend trip. He has missed the last two games.

Macdonald has certainly proven to be a balancing act when it comes to scoring. He has 32 goals and 33 assists. He is first in the league in game-winning goals with 11 and second in power play goals with 11. He is second in goals scored with 32.

Booras is second in the league in overall assists with 44 and tied with teammate Jason Lepine in power play assists with 18. Lepine is also tied with Port Huron's Daniel Tetrault for the overall scoring lead among defensemen with 40 points.

He is second in assists among defensemen with 31 and tied with teammate Matthew Spiller for goals scored by defensemen with nine. Spiller has a league-leading seven power play goals for defenders.

Teammate Zac Pearson, who has scored at least one point in seven of the last nine games, is tied for the league lead in short-handed assists with teammate Justin Sawyer at three. Pearson is second in short-handed goals with four. The PrairieThunder leads the league with 13 short-handed goals.

*More Thunder rumbles*

The PrairieThunder has a 20-8-0-2 record on the three teams behind it in the standings and a 5-16-2-3 mark on the three teams ahead of it in the standings. Bloomington has 10 of its remaining 20 games against the three teams (Flint 5, Quad City 3 and Dayton 2) trying to catch it in the standings.

Bloomington is 20-4-1-2 when scoring the game's first goal.

The PrairieThunder is still undefeated when leading after the first period (21-0-1-2) and second period (22-0-1-2)

The PrairieThunder's last four goals have been on the power play.

The number 4 has been in the final score of the PrairieThunder's last 4 games and 7 of the last 8.

Captain Jon Booras is tops on the team with 19 multi-point games and a plus-minus rating of plus-9.

Matt McIlvane, Jason Lepine, Zac Pearson, Justin Sawyer and Craig Macdonald are the only players to have appeared in all 56 games this year.



International Hockey League 2 Stories from March 9, 2010


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