After seeing his team go 1-9 in shootouts so far this season, Al Sims sent defenseman Rod Aldoff, Guy Dupuis and Brian Boulay out for the extra session, and Dupuis and Boulay scored to give the Komets the 6-5 victory over Flint.
"There's no sense going with the same guys when you're 1-9 with forwards shooting," Sims said. "I was going to go with defenseman until we won it or lost it."
For the past few weeks, Sebastien Laplante has missed action because of a broken middle finger on his blocker hand. Because he hasn't actually missed any game time and because the Komets have not had to replace him on the roster, it's been a non-issue. That, and Nick Boucher is 9-0-1 over his last 10 games.
Best game of the year all season at home. Komets really played great defensively, and both teams struggled to get through the neutral zone. It was so funny listening to some of the Komets fans on the officiating. If they call everything, some yell let them play. If they let them play, they scream about stuff they didn't call. Which is it?
There were a million little plays in this game that meant all the difference, but Sean O'Connor's steal in the Port Huron zone to get it to Varone for Dupuis's goal to give the Komets a 2-0 lead might have been the biggest.
Sean O'Connor's older brother Keith has been signed by Port Huron and will play tonight. He played at Western Michigan.
You can read it here. Don't forget to stop by Komet Kuarters from 1-3 p.m. today for our book signing with Bob Chase, Eddie Long
Manon Rheaume to play in an actual game for Flint against Muskegon. You can read Brendan Savage's article about it here. I sure hope this game doesn't become very important for anyone else's playoff position.
The Komets all said they are excited for tomorrow night's game against Port Huron, which currently is expected to have a significantly smaller crowd than tonight's 9,461.
Kevin Bertram: "It's bigger than first place because it can set the tone for the playoffs."
P.C. Drouin: "I think it was on our minds tonight, really because we didn't play our best game. I was thinking about it a little bit."
You can read about it here.
Have the Komets ever had a year when every in-season pick-up was such a slam dunk? O'Connor, Thomas, Versteeg-Lytwyn
