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