IHL Awards 08-09

IHL MVP: Jon Booras, Bloomington Prairie Thunder. He's been the only consistent threat in the Thunder's lineup and currently stands 2nd in the IHL in goals, and 2nd in points. Booras is very reliable at both ends of the ice and really is the Thunder's leader.

IHL Top Forward: Todd Robinson, Muskegon Lumberjacks. Robinson is seemingly out there for every shift of the game for the Lumberjacks, he does every thing for that club, and hey, leading the IHL with 103 points doesn't hurt either. He would be considered for MVP, but he often cherry picks and doesn't work in the corners.

IHL Top Defenseman: Guy Dupuis, Fort Wayne Komets. Guy has been very consistent for the Komets, he shows up as a threat offensively every night and can shut down any forward when on his game, he's first in points among defensemen and second in plus/minus, there really is no doubt Guy is the defenseman of the year.

IHL Top Goaltender: Nick Boucher, Fort Wayne Komets. Boucher has been the clear #1 in Fort Wayne this season, consistently making 30 or more saves a game he has the best Goals Against Average and Save Percentage among IHL starters.

IHL Top Rookie: Derek Merlini, Port Huron Icehawks. Derek has greatly improved his game at both ends of the ice this season for the Icehawks, but is mostly relied on for his strong defensive play and his great pokecheck, he leads the IHL in plus/minus.

IHL Top Defensive Forward: Tab Lardner, Port Huron Icehawks. Lardner is easily the most skilled defensive forward in the league, not only is he smart defensively but he can burn you if he gets an offensive opportunity.

IHL Top Coach: Al Sims, Fort Wayne Komets. Sims has such a great defensive system for the Komets they could put any old player out there and he would work out under Sims' coaching, the Komets really didn't go for skill recruiting this season, but he gets the most out of his players every night.

International Hockey League Predictions

It's that time of the year folks, Training Camps open tomorrow, the 6th of October, and while not all rosters are finalized with more signings on the way, i think it's time to sum up what the league is looking like this season.

6th Place: Kalamazoo Wings, This team, to be honest, is in shambles at this point, they are going to have to depend on some guys that are role players to provide offense, such as enforcer Jeremy Stevenson if they want to make the playoffs. They have some good playmakers in the lineup, but no clear cut scorers, and no depth. Jason Tapp is a capable goaltender if he gets the help he needs....but i don't expect much help out of this defense.

Team MVP: Glenn Detulleo
Other key signs: Jason Tapp, Justin Cross, Lucas Drake.

5th Place: Flint Generals, The Generals don't have much to offer this season other than plenty of toughness, they are going to rely heavily on scoring and goaltending go make a playoff spot, they have a promising young goaltender in Derek MacIntyre, and a top of the line scorer in Steve Rymsha...and that's really about it other than playmaker Greg Bullock, Jared Dumba has been converted to a defenseman, and i would think he will be the top guy there.

Team MVP: Steve Rymsha
Other key signs: Greg Bullock, Derek MacIntyre, Josef Fojtik, Jared Dumba.

4th Place: Bloomington Prairie Thunder, The Thunder have compiled kind of an odd team to be honest....they have great goaltending when Scott Fankhouser is in net, some solid defensive defenseman, and a mix bag of European forwards that im unsure of until i see some of them to be honest. They will be better than last season, but just barely make the playoffs.

Team MVP: Scott Fankhouser
Other key signs: Tomo Haffner, Jon Booras, Don Parsons, Jeff MacMillan, Christian Ban.

3rd Place: Muskegon LumberJacks, Muskegon has impressed with their offensive signings, and have a solid group of defenseman, their goaltending is decent with the 2 returnees from last season, they will no doubt rely on a heavy offensive attack to get them wins.

Team MVP: Todd Robinson
Other Key Signs: Clayton Pool, Chad Woollard, Frank Littlejohn, Steven Later, Bill Collins, Matt Gens.

2nd Place: Port Huron Icehawks, The Icehawks have signed some bigtime players to balance out the roster, Daniel Tetrault is a big time d-man, and the goaltending duo of former NHL'er Mike Minard and Larry Sterling will be the best in the league provided they stay healthy.

Team MVP: Larry Sterling
Other key signs: Mike Minard, Nicklas Lindberg, Jamie Carroll, Tab Lardner, Jeff Zehr, Daniel Tetrault, Jamie Lovell,Kris Vernarsky.

1st Place: Fort Wayne Komets, The Komets haven't really impressed me with their signing as compared to last season, they lost two main puzzle pieces to their success in Luciano Aquino and Justin Hodgman and did nothing to replace them, other than add a depth scoring piece in Dominic Osman. Their defense also looks a little worse than last year, and goaltending should be fine this season with 2 very solid goaltenders.

Team MVP: Guy Dupuis
Other Key Signs: Nick Boucher, Sebastien Laplante, Dominic Osman, Konstantin Shafronov, Colin Chaulk, Mathieu Curadeau, Jason Beckett, P.C. Drouin.

Icehawks Making a splash

The Icehawks have announced today the signing of Veteran Forward and former NHL'er Rob Valicevic. Valicevic's NHL Career began in 1998 when he played 19 games on the Nashville Predators, from there he went on to play 193 NHL games with the Predators, L.A. Kings, and Anaheim Mighty Ducks, recording 48 points during that time. This signing i think puts the Hawks at the top of the list as far as the best looking teams in the IHL go.

The Icehawks during this offseason have also signed Daniel Tetrault, Jeff Zehr, Jeremy Tucker, Jason Chafe, Paul Yovanic, Jamie Carroll, Tab Lardner, Ian Turner, Jamie Lovell, Kris Vernarsky, Jeff Bateman and Larry Sterling.

Check back soon for more!

Komets Take the Cup in Triple OT

Justin Hodgman, Playoff MVP, scored the winner of a 3-2 Triple OT game to earn the Komets the Turner Cup...in which they broke when picking it up....but none the less a happy occasion for them. The Hawks were just plain outplayed in almost every period of the game and just couldn't help out Larry Sterling enough.

As far as im concerned this was a great season for the Icehawks though, all Port Huron fans should be very proud of what their team accomplished this season, we haven't had a team this good in Port Huron in a long time. Personally i can't wait for next year, bring on the player signings!

Have a great summer everyone! i'll be keeping updated in the blog with player signings all summer long.

Well...this is it

Game 7

I've been away from the blog for some time, but i've found some time to write one as of now. So let's see what we've gotten into since then....

Well....after dropping 2 in a row with a chance to eliminate the Komets the Icehawks end up in a game 7 situation...in Fort Wayne. This situation, as it may seem, is still not hopeless at all, while the Komets during the regular season were practically unbeatable in their own building, the Icehawks we're a better road team, and have already beaten them once in their building this series. At any rate, the Icehawks the last 2 games have played poorly, basically taking 50 minutes off of a 6o minute game is going to make you lose...now isn't the time for that, if they want to win every player on this team is going to have to play their best hockey all year for all 60 minutes, trying to play virtually mistake free.

Nervous?

After reading the interviews and seeing the games myself the Icehawks the last 2 games have been very nervous, bad passes, and not so smart decisions are definently a sign of this. However, i think the tides change in this game....why? because the Komets will be the nervous ones here, playing in front of their own fans with a chance to win the cup, i think if this holds true the Icehawks have a sure shot at winning tonight.

Other Notes

Larry Sterling will start in goal tonight for the Hawks, likely Nick Boucher for the Komets. Komet forward Mitch Woods was injured when being cut by a skate last game, he needed 14 stitches, but did return to the game.

Icehawks Lose First Game in Finals

The Icehawks lost game 3 of the turner Cup Finals to Fort Wayne, 5-1. The Icehawks really lacked Defense, gave up too many shots and couldn't get pucks at the net really.

I'll have more on this when i get some time to write a full blog tonight, with review.

Icehawks Take Another Game, 2-0 Series Lead

The Port Huron Icehawks would take a solid lead in the series last night with a 3-2 Overtime victory over the Huber Trophy winning Fort Wayne Komets. Really, as far as im concerned neither team played their best hockey, especially the Icehawks, but they still came away with the win, that's all that matters. Here's how she played out....

The first period would end with what i thought was a period better played by the Icehawks, however it would produce no goals, and the shots would end up an even 9-9.

Joe Markusen

The Second period got the action going, i thought it was a pretty back and forth period, The Komets scored first with veteran Konstantin Shafranov throwing a puck at Larry Sterling, that would just dribble through his legs at the 1:34 mark of the 2nd. The Icehawks would answer when D-man Joe Markusen would sneak in off the point and fire one past Komet goalie Kevin Reiter at the 5:48 Mark of the 2nd period. The Back and forth style would take over when the Komets scored again, Colin Chaulk tapping it into a near empty net off of a rebound at the 6:33 Mark. The Icehawks would again answer when Jeff Zehr scored on the Powerplay at the 10:15 mark, in which he tipped the puck into the net, 2nd period shots would end 13-10 in favor of Port Huron.

The third period would again contain no scoring, however a controversial Komets goal would prove to have hit the crossbar, quite frankly i agree with the call, shots ended 11-8 in favor of Fort Wayne.

Jamie Lovell

The Overtime period would be a quick one when 4:53 in Hawks d-man Jamie Lovell would lower the boom with a huge slapshot, it would fool the goalie, and to be honest fool me as i couldn't see it either and blow past Reiter to the top of the net, causing the Icehawks to crowd Jamie and begin celebrating their 2-0 series lead, shots ended 33-33.

The series continues tonight in fort Wayne, where the Hawks look to take a 3-0 series lead.

All photos courtesy of porthuronicehawks.com