League and Team Awards

League

MVP: Tab Lardner (PHI) im sure a bunch of you are going, oh homer pick, but honestly...think about what the award means...the individual that helped their team the most, IMO Kory Karlander runs a 2 gun show in Kalamazoo with Nick Bootland. Back to the point though, Tab almost single handidly got us through alot of the season after the departure of Brian Felsner, and before everyone got their game on, putting up 81 points along the way.

Runner Up: Don Parsons (BLM)

Forward of the Year: Kory Karlander (KZW) yes Kory does deserve this one, and proved it dominating the leagues scoring with 94 points (41 G 53 A) that's all to really explain here....on to the next

Runner Up: Luciano Aquino (FWK)

Defenseman of the Year: Guy Dupuis (FWK) far and away the best defenseman in the league, dominating at both ends of the ice, he had 58 Points (15G 43A) and was a +41

Runner Up: Nick Tuzzolino (FLT)

Goaltender of the Year: Loic Lacasse (BLM) alot of you are probably getting ready to click the little X in the top right corner of the page, but before you do don't you want a reason? Well...here it is as far as im concerned Fort Wayne's two goalies benefited greatly from a systems team, Loic however was a completely solid goalie after finding himself, taking the starting job from Derek Dolson, Loic was the best goalie i had seen in person all year.

Runner Up: Larry Sterling (PHI)

Rookie of the Year: Loic Lacasse (BLM) again, this has been explained people!

Runner Up: Luciano Aquino (FWK)

Icehawks Awards

MVP: Tab Lardner, offensive leader, makes it all happen.

Forward: see above, you will find your answer

Defenseman: Jamie Lovell, most consistent Defenseman, good offensively and defensively.

Goaltender: Larry Sterling, easy pick.

Rookie: Josh Aspenlind, yeah JC got jipped, but he was nowhere near as good of an all around player than Josh was, good offensively, good defensively, great hitter.

Unsung Hero: Kris Vernarsky, great veteran leader, great poise with the puck.

photos via porthuronicehawks.com, wingsstadium.com, prairiethunderhockey.com

Icehawks look on to Komets in Finals

The Icehawks have reached the Turner Cup Finals, however they face a team with a winning percentage of nearly 80% throughout the regular season, the Fort Wayne Komets. The Komets lost only 12 Games in regulation during the regular season, along with 6 Overtime losses, and 2 shootout losses. The Komets lead the league in goals for, had the fewest goals against, but also took the most penalties, which is something the Icehawks will need to exploit if they want to win this series.

The Komets really on one thing to win games- a defensive, yet sometimes explosive system they have estabilished and follow every game of the season. When the Komets score, they often score in bunches, and when they go up everyone turns on a defensive approach. One thing that i thought was extremely overrated despite the stats was their goaltending, their defense won their goaltender Kevin Reiter Goalie of the Year, not Kevin Reiter himself, i've seen Reiter in years past, and i've seen his bad games this year, i know better than to think he is anywhere near best in the league. This something we need to exploit also, get shots through on their goalies, lots of them. The Komets, however, are likely to rotate goaltenders, and start Nick Boucher more often than Reiter after taking a look at Reiter's playoff stats (not good).

It's no secret the Icehawks will have a hard fought series if they want to win this Turner Cup, they need to keep their play basic and smart, relying on what has worked all season. I pick the Icehawks in 7.

Check back sometime today for my picks on Team and League Awards.

Playoff Stats:

Icehawks:

Points: 2 way tie, Kris Vernarsky, Donnie Margettie (7)
Goals: 2 way tie, Kris Vernarsky, Donnie Margettie (3)
Assists: Brent Hughes (5)
+/- : Jamie Lovell (+6)

Komets:

Points: Luciano Aquino (7)
Goals: Luciano Aquino (5)
Assists: 2 way tie, Justin Hodgman, Guy Dupuis (4)
+/- : Kevin Bertram (+7)

Icehawks on to Turner Cup Finals

The Icehawks have secured their place with a 4-3 Overtime victory over the Flint Generals, eliminating them in 5 games.

Josh Aspenlind

The game was hard fought, however the Flint Generals were unable to fight off elimination, Port Huron opened the scoring in the first, with a Powerplay Goal from Jeff Zehr, deflecting in a perfect pass from Jamie Carroll at the 14:24 mark, this was the only goal of the first period. Flint would tie the game in the 2nd, with a goal from John Dipace at the 9:54 mark. The Icehawks would answer late in the period with a Powerplay marker from Donnie Margettie at the 18:39 mark. Port Huron would open the 3rd with a goal from Kris Vernarsky at the 9:15 mark, Flint however would answer immediately with another goal from John DiPace at the 10:03 mark. Late in the period, with the goaltender out the Generals would tie the game with a goal from Josef Fojtik at the 19:36 mark. In overtime Hawks rookie Josh Aspenlind would end the game on a backhand set up by Kris Vernarsky at the 17:42 mark.

The Icehawks move on to the Turner Cup Finals, to face the winner of Fort Wayne vs Muskegon (Fort Wayne leads series 3-2)

My 3 Stars:

#1 Larry Sterling

#2 John DiPace

#3 Kris Vernarsky

Take a look tomorrow morning for a summary of the series.

All Photos courtesy of porthuronicehawks.com

What is the key to the Icehawks success?

The Icehawks haven't lost very much in the late stretch of the season, in fact including the playoffs and the regular season, the Hawks have only lost 4 times in regulation since the month of February, 3 of those losses coming to the Huber Cup winners, the Fort Wayne Komets.

So what's the key to the Icehawks success? well i'll give you my 2 cents, and what i think the big keys are to this success.



Stan Drulia
The first, and most important key to this success is the coaching, alot of people questioned the job being done by Head Coach Stan Drulia early in the season during a bit of a struggle, but let's be honest here people...Stan has got to be the best tactical coach we've had in Port Huron since the 1970's. Stan Drulia has brought in so many guys that have had career years playing here in Port Huron, Tab Lardner, and Kris Vernarsky being two key players. Why have they had career years you ask? simple line matching, and line pairings thought out by Coach Stan Drulia. Drulia quickly found out what guys can work and produce together, and after all the transactions were through, the team really heated up and got the job done in all aspects of the game. As far as im concerned, Drulia is the huge reason we are where we are right now, in fact, the biggest reason. My hat goes off to Stan for making such a good team here in Port Huron.

Larry Sterling
The second key to our success, has been another aspect of our game stressed by Stan Drulia, is the goaltending, our goalies we're 3rd best and 4th best in the league statistically, and it's no secret in this league you won't get anywhere without solid goaltending. Starter Larry Sterling put up great numbers, finishing with a 2.51 GAA and a .912 Sv%, his Save Percentage being 2nd best in the league. He was no doubt a savior to our season after we parted ways with Ron Vogel, who wasn't very good for us. To top it off, with a solid backup, we could really start any goalie on any given night and have an oppurtinity to win the game with Marty Magers backing up.



Tab Lardner
The third and final key to our success was our clutch players, getting the job done when we needed them to get it done. If you look at the guys scoring our game-winning goals, they're all top players on this team, and very valuable to the team out there in these clutch situations, the leader in this situation, is well...the leader of the team virtually, in goals, and points...Tab Lardner with 5 game winners, he's joined by 4 others with 4 game winners, including Rookie sensation Jamie Carroll and another fiery leader Jeff Zehr.


So the key to our season is simple, continuing getting great coaching, great goaltending, and key players producing when they're counted on. Doesn't get much more simple than that.


All pictures courtesy of porthuronicehawks.com

Icehawks sitting pretty in Turner Cup Playoffs

The Icehawks put the Flint Generals in a tough spot after winning on Wednesday night, the Generals are now down in the series 3-1, one loss away from elimination, and going back to the home arena of the Icehawks. The Generals are going to have to do something drastic to change up the game plan if they want to tie this series up, or even win another game in it for that matter, I honestly don't know what the Generals will do, they have very few options with the team they have built.


Eric Marvin
One option is to change goaltenders, and switch to backup Eric Marvin instead of goalie Chad alban, who's stats are a 3.73 Goals Against Average and a .892 Save Percentage...in other words less than respectable statistics. However, the problem with this is that Eric Marvin had an even worse Save Percentage during the regular season than Chad Alban does now...will they change? i wouldn't be so sure, im sure Flint Journal writer Brendan Savage will know before i can figure it out, keep an eye on his blog.



Another option would be to play an all out attack style offense these next few games, which is the style theat seemed to win them some games in the regular season, doing so however would leave their defense and goaltender hung out to dry, as they were many times throughout the season, and having a virtually immobile defense isn't going to prove well in that situation with some of the guys the Icehawks can put out there.



Either way you look at it, the Flint Generals will have to do something, anything, if they want to crawl back into the series, they have a huge task in front of them.



Updated Icehawk Playoff Leaders:



Goals: 5 way tie, Donnie Margettie, Kris Vernarsky, Tab Lardner, Jamie Lovell, Jeremy Tucker (2)

Assists: Brent Hughes (5)

Points: 2 way tie, Donnie Margettie, Brent Hughes (5)

Goalie Stats: Larry Sterling: 2.47 GAA .919 Sv%

+/- : 2 way tie, Jamie Lovell, Tab Lardner (+4)



Be sure to check in later today for more on the series.

Icehawks Win 2nd Game in Flint, 5-2

The Port Huron Icehawks have now taken a 3-1 lead in the best of seven series with the Flint Generals by defeating them by a score of 5-2 .

As expected, Generals foward Justin Depretis missed the game because of a broken thumb, However Hawks forward Brent Hughes played despite the hit he took from Michel Beausoleil in game 4, causing Beausoleil to miss the game due to a suspension.

The game started out with not much to note, no scoring despite Port Huron having 2 powerplays, and Flint 1, the shots ended 10-

8 in favor of Port Huron. The second, however, had a fast, end to end pace much unlike the first, Flint's Greg Bullock (pictured) opened the scoring for Flint just 49 seconds into the period with a slapshot above the glove of Hawks goalie Larry Sterling, the Hawks would answer just 14 seconds later when Brent Hughes centered a pass to Donnie Margettie, who was standing in front of the net, for an easy tap in. At the 11:45 mark of the second period the Hawks would score again when Jeremy Tucker would find an open Jamie Lovell for a quick wrist shot that beat Flint Goalie Chad Alban, at the 13:50 mark of the second the Generals would answer on the powerplay, tying the game at 2 with a wrist shot from Jaroslav Cesky. The Hawks though would strike again before the second could end, with a marker from captain Mark DeSantis (pictured) at 16:43 that would trickle past Alban, and into the net. To start scoring in the 3rd the Icehawks would strike again, when leading scorer Tab Lardner put a crisp wristshot through a crowd in front of Flint goaltender Alban, and past him at the 13:16 mark. A few minutes later the Hawks would put the icing on the cake with a powerplay goal from Jeremy Tucker at 17:09.

My 3 Stars for Tonight:

#1 Mark DeSantis

#2 Greg Bullock

#3 Jeremy Tucker

The series will resume when Game 5 comes back to McMorran Arena, in Port Huron, Michigan on friday night.

Michel Beausoleil Suspended

The IHL is reporting Generals forward and leading scorer Michel Beausoleil has been suspended for 1 game as a result of the hit he put on Brent Hughes in game 3, in which he recieved a boarding minor for, he is now ineligible to play tonight. Beausoleil ended the year with 36 goals and 46 Assists for 82 Points, which was
good for 3rd best in the league.

Big Game 4 Tonight in Flint

The Icehawks will be in Flint again tonight, where they will take on the Flint Generals in Game 4 of a Best of Seven series, in which the Hawks lead 2 games to 1. If the Hawks win tonight, they can bring the series back home to McMorran Arena with the chance to eliminate the Generals in 5 games. However, if they lose tonight the series will be tied at 2 a piece (let's hope that doesn't happen)

Chad Alban

The Hawks will need to play smart defensively tonight, and get great goaltending, Flint will come out strong in this game and try to turn it up offensively as they usually do to get the job done, if the Hawks shut down their scoring Flint only has one hope- Goaltender Chad Alban who has put up some ok numbers thus far, with a 3.31 Goals Against Average, and a .911 Save Percentage, Alban is expected to get the

start in net again tonight, the 4th game in a row for him, and in the Hawks net tonight will likely be Larry Sterling, going for his 4th game in a row as well, His Playoff stats include a 2.63 Goals Against Average and a .913 Save Percentage.

Larry Sterling

The Hawks will also be looking for a great performance from their shutdown defenseman, and their key forwards, especially guys like B.J. Adams, Mark DeSantis, Tab Lardner, Kris Vernarsky, and Jeff Zehr, they will all need to be crucial in this series if we want to end it and move on to the Turner Cup finals.

Other Game Notes: Icehawks forward Brent Hughes, leader in playoff assists, may miss this game, and possibly more after he may of sustained a concussion from a hit put on him by Generals forward Michel Beausoleil, Beausoleil was given a 2 minute boarding minor. Generals forward Justin Depretis will likely miss the rest of the playoffs with a broken thumb he got playing the puck in along the boards.

Icehawks Playoff Leaders:

Goals: Kris Vernarsky (2)

Assists: Brent Hughes (3)

Points: Kris Vernarsky (4)

Penalty Minutes: Jeff Zehr (31)

Icehawks Roster 2007-2008, with graded performance and stats

#1 Larry Sterling: Larry lead the way for the Hawks as their starting goaltender, making big saves at key times and being probably the best goaltender here in Port Huron in a few years.Larry's stats included a 2.51 Goals Against Average and a .912 Save Percentage, along with 24 wins and one shutout. Final Grade: A-

#2 Robert Cowan: Robert joined the team just in time for the playoffs, he didn't get much in the way of ice time as an extra defenseman, but when he did he looked good, his stats included 2 assists in 6 games, and one fight. Final Grade: C

#4 Chris Bogas: Chris returned for another season in Port Huron, and showed great improvement over last year, the veteran defenseman showed that he can lead the team on and off the ice, his stats included 4 Goals and 19 Assists in 69 Games, along with a +14 rating. Final Grade: B

#5 Joe Markusen: Joe started with a rough season at defense, having injuries keeping him sidelined, however when returning he proved he can be an offensive threat on the blueline, but could also be a risk in the defensive zone not always controlling the puck well.His stats included 11 goals and 17 Assists in 62 Games, along with a +1 Rating. Final Grade: B-

#14 Rich Hansen: Rich joined the team midseason as a fill in for forward Brian Felsner, he isn't the best of skaters, but can be an offensive threat when on his
game.His stats included 14 Goals and 19 Assists in 45 Games. Final Grade: C+

#15 Kris Vernarsky: Kris returned for another season here in Port Huron to be a playmaking center on the first line, he had a career year, and was very good at both ends of the ice, showing what his veteran skills and NHL experience could bring to the table.His stats included 21 goals and 44 Assists in 69 Games, along with a +13 Rating. Final Grade: A-

#16 Robert Snowball: Robert returned for another season in Port Huron with the role of a heavyweight fighter, at 6'3 235lbs he was a force to be reckoned with in the IHL, going 10-2-1 in fights this year.His stats included 1 Goal, 2 Assists, and 141 Penalty Minutes in 34 Games. Final Grade: B+

#17 Jeremy Tucker: Jeremy is a speedy forward that came to Port Huron for a 2nd year in search of more goals, however he did not improve on last years, he did get involved in fights this year however and worked very hard.His stats included 9 Goals and 5 Assists in 61 Games. Final Grade: C-

#18 Josh Aspenlind: Josh came into this season as a rookie, and proved he can play great in any situation on the ice, penalty killing, or in the offensive aspect, as well as throwing the big hits even.His stats included 18 Goals and 33 Assists in 76 Games, along with a +4 Rating. Final Grade: A

#19 Brent Hughes: Brent came into town after winning the CHL championship the year before. His season, however, was plagued with injuries, when he was in he was quick and hard working though. His stats included 10 Goals and 13 Assists in 59 Games. Final Grade: C

#21 B.J. Adams: B.J. Adams came back to Port Huron as a player/coach and a defensive defenseman, he was as advertised and played his role decently, but is prone to making some mistakes. His stats included 3 goals and 9 Assists in 75 Games. Final Grade: C


#23 Tab Lardner: Tab came to Port Huron to be a 2nd line playmaker and an alternate captain, Tab however exceeded all expectations, leading the team in scoring and being the best forward on the team.His stats included 39 Goals and 42 Assists in 71 Games, along with a +20 Rating. Final Grade: A+

#24 Derek Merlini: Derek is a 6'6 245lb defenseman that came to Port Huron to be a big hitter, he however had on and off days in all aspects of the game, being a better defensive defenseman than anything else, and throwing the occasional big hit. His stats included 2 goals and 3 Assists in 43 Games, along with a +5 Rating. Final Grade: C

#25 Kerry Bowman: (did not see enough of him to comment)

#27 Donnie Margettie: Donnie came to Port Huron in a deadline trade to bulk up on veteran forwards and leadership for the playoffs, he filled his role great, being the teams top middleweight fighter and veteran leader in the locker room. His total stats on the year included 8 goals, 22 Assists, and 223 Penalty minutes in 65 Games. Final Grade: B+

#28 Jamie Carroll: Jamie arrived in Port Huron as a rookie, making the team in training camp and then playing spectacularly, filling an important role offensively with his dangerous wrist shot. His stats included 30 Gaols and 40 Assists in 74 Games, along with a +6 Rating. Final Grade: A

#29 Jeremy Leroux: Jeremy was signed early in the season as a rookie d-man, but played some forward as well.He proved to be an OK guy at either end of the ice. His stats included 8 Goals and 14 Assists in 67 Games. Final Grade: C-

#31 Marty Magers: Marty arrived in town to be the backup goalie, and filled that role very well, being a very solid backup. His stats included a 2.89 Goals Against Average and a .904 Save Percentage, along with 14 wins. Final Grade: B

#32 Steve Hildenbrand: Steve came in mid season to fill a veteran void the team had at forward, his skills however were not as good this year, and he was played mostly as a 3rd line center. His stats included 1 Goal and 11 Assists in 24 Games. Final Grade: D+

#33 Jamie Lovell: Jamie was acquired very early in the season to fill a last defense spot, but i think he was better than most would expect, having a good offensive side to him with a great slapshot as well. His stats included 8 goals and 23 Assists in 69 Games, and a +5 Rating. Final Grade: B+

#44 Mark DeSantis: Mark was brought into Port Huron to be our captain, and best Defenseman, his stats however trailed off from the usual, and he seemed a bit unlike himself at times, i believe because of his age. his stats included 6 goals and 22 Assists in 66 Games. Final Grade: C+

#54 Jeff Zehr: Jeff, at 6'4 215lbs, was brought in as a power forward, and an offensive threat. That he was, as a great scorer, playmaker, and fighter.He also served as an alternate captain. His stats included 33 Goals, 33 Assists, and 128 Penalty minutes in 71 Games. Final Grade: A-

All photo's courtesy of porthuronicehawks.com