Game 1 -- Friday at Rockford, 8:30 p.m.
Game 2 -- Sunday at Rockford, 6 p.m.
Game 3 -- Tuesday, April 25 at Fort Wayne, 7:30 p.m.
Game 4 -- Thursday, April 27 at Fort Wayne, 7:30 p.m.
Game 5 -- Friday, April 28 at Rockford, 8:30 p.m.
Game 6 -- Saturday, April 29 at Fort Wayne, 7:30 p.m.
Game 7 -- Tuesday, May 2 at Rockford, 8:30 p.m.
Olivier Proulx is out for the season with shoulder surgery. The IceHogs are deciding their last roster spot between Bob Nardella and Nathan Lutz. Lutz is currently playing with Milwaukee of the AHL and won't be available to start the series, and Nardella is banged up.
According to Rockford coach Steve Martinson, Billy TIbbetts' two-game suspension in the AHL will not carry over into the UHL playoffs and he'll be able to play Friday. The IceHogs also got Robin Big Snake and Preston Mizzi back from AHL call-ups today.
Congratulations to Kevin Kurk who was named the UHL's Goaltender of the Week for his two wins over the weekend against Muskegon and Kalamazoo. Richmond's Mike Oliviera was the player of the week. The Komets nominated Kelly Miller.
If anyone is planning on going to the games this weekend, hotel rooms are very scarce in Rockford because of a huge soccer tournament and a convention. You might even want to consider trying to get rooms in DeKalb. The first five hotels I called, the onces the IceHogs had checked out earlier to see if they had rooms, were now sold out.
The Komets will go into the playoffs without Colin Chaulk who has a tear in his Achilles tendon that will require four to six weeks to heal. He was left off the playoff roster in a unable to perform category so the Komets will retain his rights. The injury will not require surgery.
Komets General Manager David Franke said the team plans to be active in Tuesday's waiver wire draft.
More to come
Two great games in a row. How about that comeback? They were busting their rear ends right to the end of the game.
How about that shaky goaltending early? That's what I mean about leaving rebounds like hand grenades. Give the kid credit, he hung in there and pulled it together.
Anybody surprised by some of the awards? I was a little surprised Lance didn't get anything, but I'm sure most of you will be surprised Guy was defenseman of the year.
How about Rockford once again!!!!! I am so happy I don't have to go to Danbury.
Best. Game. Of. The. Year.
They dominated. I was so impressed that the Komets won the game, Muskegon didn't lose it. To my mind, they broke the Fury.
Did you notice how the Komets were covering passes up high in the defensive zone? That is something that has always killed them against the Fury.
How about Troy Neumeier. He played like he was 25 not 35. It's also looking like keeping A.J. Bozoian under 60 games so he can be a rookie next year is brilliant.
What did you think?
He saw the doctor Friday morining and the early prognosis is that at the very least it's going to be another week. The MRI results will be back Monday, Chaulk said.
``It's improving a little bit, but the range of motion is coming back very slowly,'' he said. When I walk, I have to kind of drag my foot behind me. When you walk forward and your heal comes of the ground, that's when it hurts.''
That doesn't sound good. I'm sure the Komets are beating the bushes to find what they can to serve as a back-up if nothing else.
Komets have nothing to play for except pride, which they need against Muskegon, and the Fury have everything to play for. What are you expecting out of this weekend's games?
Another thing. The Komets have been talking in recent years about maybe changing the format the of the annual season awards as far as when they are presented. It just seems that fewer and fewer fans stick around to watch them. What would you like to see? Or leave it the same?
If the Komets play Rockford in the first round, the first two games will be played April 21 and 23 in ockford The IceHogs announced the dates on Wednesday. If those dates hold up, Komets President Michael Franke said it's likely the Komets would play Games 3 and 4 on Wednesday, April 26 and Saturday, April 29, meaning Game 5 would likely be Sunday, April 30 in Rockford. Game 6 would probably be played Tuesday, May 2 in Fort Wayne and Game 7 Wednesday, May 3 in Rockford.
I just talked to Colin and he's supposed to have another MRI on Friday or Monday depending on the swelling. He'll be checking for questions during the game to start stacking them up here whenever you'd like.
According to the bosses, we had nearly 1,200 hits here yesterday. Not bad for a day I was supposed to be off! LOL.
Thank you very much.
Don't forget we'll have Colin Chaulk on the blog during Wednesday night's game.
And I'm going to try to take the rest of today off, too. LOL. We'll see.
Unfortunately, there's not much new. Colin was examined this morning by team doctor Greg Sassmannshausen at Fort Wayne Orthpaedics and an MRI will be done on his leg sometime this week. The leg is healing, but this is a precautionary move, according to Komets General Manager David Franke.
Yes, there will be a test after this.
The Komets will be either the sixth or seventh seed when the playoffs start in two weeks, mostly likely sixth.
They are currently two points up on Quad Ciity for seventh and four up on Motor Ciity for eighth. The Komets cannot finish eighth because they own the tiebreaker of total wins with Motor City. They also hold the tiebreaker with Quad City.
Motor City plays Port Huron twice and Quad City plays Richmond and Flint.
As soon as it happened, Colin Chaulk knew he was in trouble
because he remembered the feeling.
Once when he was playing junior hockey in Kingston, Ontario, an opposing player slid into Chaulk's left leg to slice it with a skate around his skate boot's tongue. The same thing happened Friday night in Port
Huron, this time to the rear of his right leg, three inches above the boot and three inches below the calf.
“I just felt the heat and I knew,'' Chaulk said.
I just talked to Colin Chaulk, and he's going into Fort Wayne Ortho tomorrow and says his plan is to be ready by the playoffs. He's optimistic that the tendon is fine but wants to make sure so he can know how intense he can re-hab.
Since he's laid up on the shelf, I asked him to come on the blog on Wednesday night during the Komets' game at Missouri and have a session with us. How's that sound?
With today's point against Quad City, the Komets have 88 points and the most Richmond can get is 88, but the Komets own the tiebreaker. This is the 29th time over the last 31 seasons that the Komets have made the playoffs.
When Frank Littlejohn was traded to Quad City, all you heard on here was moaning about how the Komets should have gone out and gotten him no matter what the cost. I said that was nuts, that Littlejohn was too much of a hothead who cost his team with penalties, pointing to last year's playoff series against the Komets when he was their best player while playing for Missouri. Anybody remember that?
It's the middle of the first period today and Littlejohn already has three minor penalties.
According to Komets President Michael Franke, Colin Chaulk came home Friday night with General Manager David Franke after being discharged from the hospital and receiving several stitches. He was able to walk on his leg and he'll go to see the team doctor on Monday.
Chaulk suffered a cut on the back of his leg between the boot of his skate and the bottom part of his shin pads during Friday's game at Port Huron.
Komets coach Greg Puhalski said Colin Chaulk sliced open the back of his leg near his ankle when he fell on the skate blade of another player. He was taken to the hospital as a precautionary measure to get stitched up, and he'll be out of the lineup the rest of the weekend. The Komets don't believe the injury is going to turn out to be a major one.
