Revolving Door For Top Four Playoff Spots

Published on March 2, 2009 under International Hockey League 2 (IHL 2) News Release


ROCHESTER, MI--- With only six weeks left in the regular season, the playoff races are heating up in the International Hockey League (IHL). Four franchises will make the playoffs, so teams are fighting for position and attempting to punch their ticket to the postseason. It has been a revolving door for first through fourth places, where no one has solidified their spot in the standings after 20 weeks of play. With teams being so close in points, the standings have been changing almost daily.

The outlook for the playoffs is relatively unchanged after the past week. The Port Huron Icehawks and Muskegon Lumberjacks remain tied for first place with 74 points, and have just a seven-point advantage over the Fort Wayne Komets and a nine-point advantage over the Kalamazoo Wings. Fort Wayne continues to earn points and leaped over the K-Wings in the standings, going 2-0-1-0 this week, earning five out of six possible points.

The team with the biggest advantage to gain points as of late has been the Bloomington PrairieThunder. Bloomington, who sits 15-points behind Kalamazoo for the last playoff spot, played the first-place Icehawks in five of their last six games beating Port Huron just once in overtime during those games. However, 13 of the PrairieThunder's next 14 games will be played against the top four teams in the league as they look to gain some ground towards the fourth and final playoff spot in the IHL.

AROUND THE "I"

Bloomington PrairieThunder - (0-3-0-0) - Captain Jon Booras became the first player in franchise history to reach the 200-game plateau when he took the ice Friday at Port Huron. Booras is also the franchise career leader in goals scored (75), assists (95) and points (170). Four times this season the PrairieThunder have scored a goal in the final minute to force the game into overtime or a shootout. The team is undefeated in those games. Rookie Mike Kusy scored his first professional goal in a 2-1 loss at Port Huron on Saturday. Injured goaltender Scott Fankhouser made his coaching debut Saturday at Port Huron when he filled in for head coach Jarrod Skalde, who was serving a one-game league suspension. The PrairieThunder is in the midst of a five-game road trip, which sees the team play six of seven games on the road before retuning home to play six of seven at U.S. Cellular Coliseum.

Flint Generals - (1-2-0-0) - Frank Littlejohn has scored four goals since coming to Flint with three coming at the expense of his former Muskegon Lumberjacks team. Flint's 5-4 victory over Bloomington Thursday night in Flint was the fourth consecutive victory against the PrairieThunder at Perani Arena. In Friday night's game at Fort Wayne, Flint was assessed seven minor penalties which included four different 5-on-3 penalty killing situations, never allowing a power play goal. Flint's Maxime Lincourt scored against his former Muskegon teammates on Saturday night, his first goal in a Flint jersey. Veteran right wing Jeff Zehr has registered at least one point in eight of his last 10 games, including six points with the Generals (6 assists) in five of six games played. Frank Littlejohn has recorded eight points in six of his last eight games, this included at least one point in five of six games played since joining the Generals.

Fort Wayne Komets - (2-0-1-0) - Komets collected five of a possible six points in three games played to trail first-place Port Huron and Muskegon by seven points with 21 games remaining. The week started Wednesday at home with the Komets suffering their third overtime loss of the season 5-4 to Muskegon, just the second loss in OT to the 'Jacks. Friday the Komets recovered with their sixth straight home win over the Flint Generals 9-2 and remain unbeat by Flint on Coliseum ice this season. Saturday the Komets clipped the Wings at Kalamazoo 3-2 for their second straight win over the Wings and extended their road unbeaten streak to a current IHL high nine games (6-0-0-3). Milestones: Center Mathieu Curadeau skated his 100th career Fort Wayne game Friday vs. Flint. Defenseman Guy Dupuis appeared in his 784th career Komet game Saturday at Kalamazoo to tie Terry Pembroke for second-most games played during the regular season as a Komet. Dupuis needs 18 more games to beat Eddie Long's record of 801 Komet career games. One-Goal Games: Twenty-Five Komet games (45% of 55 games played) have been decided by one goal and the Komets have won eight of them. Eleven have ended in regulation (5-6). Fourteen have taken overtime or a shootout to determine the winner. The Komets have lost only twice in regulation in their last 19 games (10-2-2-5, .711).

Kalamazoo Wings - (1-3-0-0) - K-Wings will begin their second three-game home stand in as many weeks with an Education Day showdown versus the Port Huron Icehawks. Blair Manning recorded his 800th career point on an assist during the K-Wings game on 02/28/09 versus Fort Wayne. Justin Cross posted his best week of the season with three goals and an assist, all of which were recorded in two games against Muskegon. Jason Tapp ranks second among goaltenders in wins with 19. Tapp is also second in saves (975), and third in minutes played (2035:14). Joel Martin leads the league with a 0.916 save percentage. Tyler Willis is two games shy of 700 in his career. Glenn Detulleo is three points shy of 400 in his career. With 32 wins on the season, Kalamazoo has already surpassed their win total of 31 from last year. Kalamazoo's 3-2 loss to Fort Wayne last Saturday marked the second time this season and the first since opening night that the K-Wings lost a game (2-0) leading at the start of the third period. After missing the past 30 games, Tyler Willis returned to the K-Wings lineup last Wednesday versus Port Huron.

Muskegon Lumberjacks - (3-1-0-0) - Having just completed 15 game in 26 days, with nine of those 15 on the road, the Lumberjacks posted an excellent record of 10-3-0-2, going 7-1-0-1 on the road. In the process, the Lumberjacks surged into a first place tie in the IHL standings with Port Huron. In their last eight-games decided by a one goal margin, Muskegon is 7-1-0-0. In his third season as Muskegon head coach, Bruce Ramsay with 118 victories is 12 wins away from trying Rich Kromm (130) for #2 all-time in Muskegon career coaching victories. Since their major five-player trade with Flint on February 18th, the Lumberjacks have posted a record of 6-1-0-0. In his first seven games with the Lumberjacks since his trade from Flint on 2/18, John DiPace has scored 10 points (5g, 5a). Muskegon's total of 34 wins so far this season is one win shy of matching last season's output of 35 with 20 games still to go.

Port Huron Icehawks - (3-0-0-0) - Port Huron played two home games last weekend, and play six of their next eight games on home ice. The Icehawks have won their last three games at McMorran Arena and are unbeaten in regulation in their last eight home contests (7-0-1-0). They are 17-9-2-0 overall at home this season. Each of the Icehawks three victories last week came in the form of one-goal games. They are 13-5-5-1 in one goal games this season. With a goal and an assist on Friday versus Bloomington, left wing Tab Lardner surpassed 400 points in his pro career. The Icehawks have faced only two opponents, Kalamazoo and Bloomington, in the last two weeks. The trend will continue this week as they play Kalamazoo on Wednesday and Bloomington on Friday. The stretch will come to an end on Saturday in Muskegon. The Icehawks currently lead the season series with every team in the league, except for Fort Wayne, in which they trail 5-5-1-0. Right wing Robert Snowball was reassigned to the Icehawks on Friday after a stint in the American Hockey League. The enforcer was called up to the Lake Erie Monsters on February 14th and registered one goal and +1 rating in three games with the team. He played with the Icehawks on Friday and Saturday and finished the weekend with a +1 rating.

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International Hockey League 2 Stories from March 2, 2009


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