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ECHL Fort Wayne Komets

Record Crowd Welcomes Komets Home

November 11, 2002 - ECHL (ECHL)
Fort Wayne Komets News Release


Fort Wayne, IN --- The Komets took 3 games in 3 nights for the week ending Nov. 10 and extended their win streak to 4 games. The Komets improved to 8-4-0 on the season and moved from 4th to 2nd place in the Eastern Conference, 5 points behind first-place Port Huron.

Friday the Komets doubled up the Wings at Kalamazoo 6-3 to finish a 10-game road tour prior to their home opener. Jason Selleke netted his first hat trick of the season and 2nd of his career. Dustin Virag, Kelly Perrault and David-Alexandre Beauregard also added tallies while Colin Chaulk passed 3 helpers in the match for his second 3-point outing of the season. Pokey Reddick started the game and stopped 6 of 7 shots before leaving game after the first 20 minutes. Scott Rideout allowed 2 goals on 22 shots in 40 minutes of play.

Saturday the Komets began their home portion of the 2002-03 season in the newly renovated War Memorial Coliseum in Fort Wayne. A record crowd of 10,009 Komet faithful welcomed the Komets home to their new digs and the Komets responded with a 3-1 victory over the visiting Quad City Mallards for Fort Wayne's 4th home opening win in 4 UHL seasons. The old Komet attendance record was set Jan. 21, 1970 when the Komets answered with a 5-4 win over the Muskegon Mohawks. In Saturday night's home opener defenseman Kevin Schmidt scored his first goal as a Komet (in 85 games) and Virag and Sean Venedam each added a goal to the scoring. Goaltender Tom Lawson stopped 28 of 29 shots for his 4th win of the season.

Sunday the Komets finished the weekend with a 4-0 victory over the Mallards at Quad City in the 2nd of a home-and-home series. It was the Komet's 3rd straight win over Quad City this season. Lawson registered his 2nd shutout of the season and his career stopping all 19 Mallard shots and turning back 10 Quad City power plays. Bobby Stewart netted his first pair of the season while Michel Massie and Virag also found the back of the net.

The Komets have another 3-game weekend coming up as the Adirondack IceHawks visit this Friday at 7:35pm and conference rival Port Huron Beacons make their first appearance in Fort Wayne Saturday night at 7:35. Sunday the Komets travel to Port Huron to complete a home-and-home series against the Beacons at 5:05pm.

Tickets for all Komet home games are on sale at the Coliseum Ticket Office and online at www.ticketmaster.com.

Komet games this week:
11/15, Friday.....Adirondack at Komets, 7:35pm
11/16, Saturday.....Port Huron at Komets, 7:35pm
11/10, Sunday....Komets at Port Huron, 5:05pm Gamecast: All 3 games will be broadcast on WOWO Radio AM 1190 and webcast at www.komets.com at KometCast.

Komet practices this week (week of 11/11): Tuesday and Wednesday at McMillen at 10am.....Thursday, Friday and Saturday at the coliseum at 10am each day.

Leader board: Virag 7g, 11a, 18pts.....Massie 4ppg, 47pim.....Venedam +12.....Venedam, Stewart 48 shots .....Lawson 5-1-0, 1.57 ave, .936 spct.

For the week: Virag 3g, 3a...Chaulk 4a...Stewart 2g, 2a...Selleke 3g (hat trick)...Bertram 3a...Perrault 1g, 1a...Beauregard 1g, 1a...Venedam 1g, 1a...Schmidt 1g...Massie 1g...Barlow, Neumeier, Kotyluk each 1a...Lawson 2gp, 120:00, 2-0-0, 1 shutout, 1ga, 0.50 ave, 47/48, .979 spct ...Reddick 1gp, 20:00, 1ga, 6/7...Rideout 1gp, 40:00, 0-0-0, 2ga, 14/16...power play 4/18= 22.2%, penalty kill 18/20=90%.

Komet Players of the Week.....the Komet's nomination for UHL Goaltender of the Week is Tom Lawson. Lawson was 2-0-0 in 2 games played allowing 1 goal on 48 shots for a .979 save percentage and 0.50 goals against average. He registered another shutout (2nd of the season and of his career) and stopped all 13 power plays he faced. Lawson currently leads all UHL goalies with a 1.57 average and .936 save percentage......the Komet's nomination for Player of the Week is winger Dustin Virag for scoring 3 goals, 3 assists and a +4 in 3 games played. Virag, in his 2nd pro season and 2nd with the Komets, leads the team with 7 goals, 11 assists and 18 points. Virag's consistancy has also earned him a 9-game point streak (7g, 10a) and 5-game goal scoring streak (5g).

Stingy defense.....the Komet's defense is the stingiest in the UHL allowing only 2.67 goals against per game and 25.9% shots against per game.

Hittin' the mark.....Colin Chaulk passed his 200th career assist Friday night (11/8) at Kalamazoo...Bobby Stewart netted his 200th regular season goal Sunday (11/10) at Quad City.

Milestones ahead......David-Alexandre Beauregard has registered 99 career UHL assists.....Sean Venedam has 196 regular season assists.....Jason Selleke has 96 career points.

Streaking Komets.....Dustin Virag is riding a 9-game point streak (7g, 10a, 17pts) and 5-game goal scoring streak (5g).

Marathon/Komets Fill Up Cards are back.....once again this year, the Komets have teamed with Marathon to offer fans a chance to get gas at Marathon for a free Komet ticket offer. 3 fill-ups stamped on a Marathon/Komet Fill Up card gets customers a "Buy One, Get One Free" ticket offer good on select Marathon nights at Komet home games all season long. Komet Marathon Fill Up Cards are available at all participating Marathon stations. A Fill Up Card can also be found on the Komet's 2002-03 pocket schedule. Fill Up cards must be redeemed at the Coliseum Ticket Office. The first Marathon Night of the season is this Friday night, Nov. 15 when the Komets host Adirondack at 7:35.

KometCast worldwide.....fans can catch Komet hockey action all over the world with Comcast KometCast, an exclusive Fort Wayne Komets internet presentation available at the Komets website at www.komets.com. Comcast KometCast features play-by-play by Bob Chase in his 50th season of calling Komet hockey radio-rinkside. Komet team stats, information, UHL standings and more also can be found at www.komets.com. Stats and standings are updated each morning during the season.

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