To show how fired up you are Friday night?
In other words, a long, long time ago... (if nobody under age 35 gets that joke, sorry). The last time someone scored against the Komets in a road playoff game was 1996. Game 4 in Orlando, Joe Frederick against Bob Essensa.
Chad and I got home safe from Muskegon. Hope everyone else did.
I hear there's about 2,000 seats left for tomorrow as of 5 p.m. The Komets office bought the Coliseum ticket office lunch today.
Here's a story about the penalty shot, and here's one about all the Fort Wayne fans making the trip for the game.
Muskegon General Manager Tim Taylor estimated there were 650 Fort Wayne fans at the game... The Komets provided a bus so all their office staff and the players' families could attend the game. That's class... Before the game, Komets General Manager David Franke actually warned coach Al Sims about the possibility of Bob Langdon calling a penalty shot... The Komets have out-shot Muskegon 170-108 in the series... After scoring 42 goals in 46 regular-season games, Muskegon's Robin Bouchard has not had a shot on goal the last two games...
I talked with IHL Vice President of Hockey Operations Brad Jones after the game, and he said Bob Langdon called a penalty shot because a reasonable scoring opportunity was taken away. It's a misconception that if a player gets a shot off a penalty shot cannot be called, Jones said.
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Mathieu Curadeau just missed getting Fort Wayne's first goal on this first-period play (the puck is beside the goalpost), and Darryl McArthur scored Muskegon's second goal over Nick Boucher's blocker on the second photo. McArthur broke in all alone.
Muskegon's using a forecheck well tonight to throw the Komets off-balance. Komets have made two mistakes, the Lumberjacks scored on both. Muskegon is using 14 skaters, including seven forwards, and I wonder if the Lumberjacks can keep this pace up.
WANE's Ross Kinsey and I will be doing some reports tonight on Channel 15 news at 5 and 6 p.m., and possibly 11 p.m. I'll also be on with Bob on WOWO sometime tonight. He's more excited than a 5-year-old at Christmas.
Here are some options for you tonight if you weren't able to make it.
You can listen to the game here; or watch it here on the B2 network. That costs $8, and you'll get to listen to Muskegon's Terry Ficorelli.
You can read "Wizard's magic" here, and the notebook here talks about series in which teams lead 3-0. Did you know the Komets almost lost a 3-0 lead once?
Why have the Komets been doing better in overtimes? You can find out here.
Randy and I discuss the series here with some great camera work by Chad Ryan. I swear, it's like he knows what we're going to talk about! It's a good thing he gets to go with me to Muskegon so we'll have photo pages in the paper after each game.
I'm sensing that some of you may be a tad overconfident that the Komets are just going to easily win this thing 4-0. Aren't you anxious at all?
