Heading into Rockford on Saturday night, a lot of things could have gone wrong for the Fort Wayne Komets. The Komets were coming off a poor performance the night before in a 2-1 home loss to Muskegon, they had been embarrassed 5-1 in their last trip to Rockford and it was their third game in three nights.
The Komets pulled together to win 4-3 in a shootout and extend their Western Division lead to six points over the IceHogs. They also improved their road record to 4-3.
It was too little too late. We weren't up to the challenge at the beginning. We figured it out in the third period and played good hockey, and at that point the referee put his whistle in his pocket and nothing was a penalty any more which is to me disturbing. That's not the reason we dug ourselves a two-goal hole. We didn't play our style effectively enough in the early stages of the game. There's times when we can really control the pace of the game, and we dictate the pace. There was a lot of times tonight when we just couldn't seem to get it all together.
Excellent game so far as these two teams are very evenly matched. Komets had lots of jump early as did the entire building. But then for some reason the Komets stopped hitting and their forecheck wasn't as effective.
Muskegon is playing without two great defensemen in Jon Insana and Tom Galvin, who are on call-ups, but the Komets have not been very aggressive going after the Fury.
I just got off the phone with Scott Sproat, and he said that currently it looks like the Komets will have about the same attendance as last night.
This will be the ultimate proof that the team can't just market to diehard fans. A great game like this. There are very few groups and no school projects because of the holiday. That's why they have to go after every casual fan they can get their hands on. If ever a particular game should sell itself this is the one, but it's not even coming close.
In case you didn't get to see the story, you can now read it here.
First off, Goneau came back and was fine. ``It's been three weeks,'' he said. ``There was no problem.''
So far after eight home games, the Komets have out-scored their opponents 49-14, out-scoring their power play 25-4. Their closest margin of victory has been three goals, and i don't believe that even includes any empty-net goals.
The Komets have showed a recent trend of coming out and scoring the first goal and then letting up the rest of the first period. Then they usually blow a team out in the second period. Don't think they'll be able to pull that off tomorrow against Muskegon.
First five minutes Thursday the Komets led 1-0 and out-shot Bloomington 5-0. Then the next five minutes got out-shot 6-0 and were tied in shots 13-13 after one period. Score was tied as well 2-2.
Sorry, but Bloomington is trying, but the PrairieThunder are not very talented.
First off, you can read about former Komet and current Muskegon coach Bruce Ramsay here.
On Thursday I've got two things coming, one of which you are all very familiar with, and the other is a funny feature on Bruce Richardson's diet. If ever somebody needs to sit down and have a cookie, he's the guy, as will be explained in the story.
Two notes for you: The Komets are 29-15-3 all-time on Thanksgiving, including 27-14-3 at home. They are 5-2 on Thanksgiving since joining the UHL.
Someone made a comment about jumping on past players, and I thought about and maybe this can give you a little bit of insight into my job.
Actually, it happens about an average of once a year and it's something that I think a great deal about before and then twice as much after it happens. Not a fun part of the job by any means, but it is part of the job. It should be hard to rip someone, but that doesn't mean it shouldn't happen. Just as praise is part of the job, so is criticism.
I just got ``Muskegon's Hockey History and Heroes'' in the mail today and gave it a quick read. Jay VandeVoorde wrote the 285-page book, and it's obviously a work of a lifetime for him.
The first minor league attendance rankings of the year are out here.
Justin's jerking my chain on his blog about a column I wrote about the league needing a Defenseman of the Week Award.
Though I was pushing for this even in the IHL, here was my most recent concept from an Oct. 18 column:
Tomorrow's story is about Arthur Kiyaga and some of the things he does away from the rink. He writes poetry and I think his work is brilliant. As a writer, I'm a little jealous. LOL. Seriously, the hardest part of this story was picking which of his pieces to share with you.
Appropriately enough, it's of newly named UHL Player of the Week Martin Gascon. Great pick from Pat.
You can see it here.
The United Hockey League (UHL) announced Monday that Fort Wayne Komets center Martin Gascon has been named Sher-Wood UHL Player of the Week and Rockford IceHogs goaltender Frederic Cloutier has been named Southern Sports Supply UHL Goaltender of the Week for the period ending Sunday, November 19th, 2006.
One of the things Mario and I talked about last week was how I wondered if he'd get a call-up to the AHL because he certainly deserves one.
The gist of the conversation was he'd consider it, but it would have to be the right deal in every way. He's having a lot of fun here and loves his teammates, the money would more than likely be the same, he would likely not be going to a winning team and he'd go from being a major player who's on the ice for 30 minutes a game to a bit part playing 10 per game.
I asked Domber what happened in front of the Elmira bench and he said he was not lipping off. He was telling Jackals Coach Kris Waltze that he had not intended to shoot the puck at him. Then he got creamed. I had a direct line of sight to him and could clearly see his face, and I didn't think there was much venom at the time.
All of you who love the fights so much, are you fans of boxing or ultimate fighting? If not, why? Why hockey fights per se?
I've also always wondered, what do you tell your kids?
