Tailing The Komets

This ought to help you get fired up.

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Turner Cup Most Valuable Player Justin Hodgman is on his way to Fort Wayne and will be in the lineup Wednesday night against Muskegon. Komets General Manager David Franke said nothing has been signed yet, but Hodgman said, “I’m on my way, and I can’t wait to sign the papers.”

Hodgman said he had been talking contract with Rockford of the AHL, but that fell through, so he decided to return to Fort Wayne. He must play the last six regular-season games to be eligible for the playoffs.

Why is he coming back?

“To win,” Hodgman said. “I love the city and the guys. I learned a lot from Al when I wa there last time. I want to better my career and I talked about it with people around me and figure this is the best place to do that. I knew I was going to go somewhere, and Fort Wayne was the best place for me.”

Hodgman will be at practice Wednesday morning.

After scoring four goals and eight points in 11 regular-season games with the Komets last season, Hodgman scored seven goals and 14 points in 13 playoff games, including the game-winner in triple overtime of Game 7 against Port Huron.

This season he led the Erie Otters of the Ontario Hockey League in scoring with 24 goals and 66 points in 66 games.

You can read here about Guy Dupuis approaching the marks of Eddie Long and Terry Pembroke for all-time games played in a Komets uniform. You can also see an interview with Guy here.

You can read it here. This is something the IHL should leave all kinds of alone for at least a year. This city needs a total fresh start in hockey, and going in there next year would be a huge mistake.

This is Brian Boulay from a shot by Chad Ryan on March 21. Chad took the photo, not the shot that hit Brian in the head. You can click on the photo for a larger view.

Some very interesting notes this week from Komets PR man Chuck Bailey.

* The Komets were 13-1-1 in March after going 13-0-1 in March last year… Nick Boucher has reached his career high in wins, Guy Dupuis and David Hukalo in goals. P.C. Drouin needs one goal to break his career high.

For the third week in a row, Nick Boucher is the IHL’s Goaltender of the Week. Last week he was 4-0 with a .88 goals aganist average and .966 save percentage.

Komets General Manager David Franke said the center has been cleared to play Wednesday after getting his bell run Sunday in Flint. No other players are dealing with any major injuries that would keep them out of the lineup, Franke said.

After seeing his team go 1-9 in shootouts so far this season, Al Sims sent defenseman Rod Aldoff, Guy Dupuis and Brian Boulay out for the extra session, and Dupuis and Boulay scored to give the Komets the 6-5 victory over Flint.

“There’s no sense going with the same guys when you’re 1-9 with forwards shooting,” Sims said. “I was going to go with defenseman until we won it or lost it.”

It was the longest game of the season, lasting three hours, one minute, as the Komets improved to 13-0-1 over their last 14 games. Goaltender Nick Boucher came off the bench to make 11 saves in the third period and overtime and stop two Flint shooters in the shootout to improve his recent record to 10-0-1.

The win was the Komets’ sixth in a row overall, and seventh in a row on the road, giving them a 24-8-4 record away from Memorial Coliseum this season with games remaining at Bloomington on Friday and at Kalamazoo on April 10. The franchise record for road wins in a season is 25 set in 2003-04.

The Komets finish up with four of six games at home, starting Wednesday against third-place Muskegon which is five points behind the Komets after Sunday’s shootout win over Bloomington, but the Lumberjacks have played one fewer game than Fort Wayne. The Lumberjacks now go on a five-game road stretch before finishing the season with two games at home. Port Huron plays four of its final seven games at home.

For the past few weeks, Sebastien Laplante has missed action because of a broken middle finger on his blocker hand. Because he hasn’t actually missed any game time and because the Komets have not had to replace him on the roster, it’s been a non-issue. That, and Nick Boucher is 9-0-1 over his last 10 games.

Anyway, you’ll never guess how, or should I say, who, gave Laplante his bum finger. Yep, P.C. Drouin. Drouin has already put Laplante out of action twice this season, the first time on a bruised collarbone because of a high shot during a practice. When Laplante came back from that, the exact day he was supposed to start again, he caught a Drouin slap shot during the morning skate and broke the collarbone.

This time, according to Laplante, he had taken his blocker off and was adjusting his equipment during a practice when he got hit by another Drouin shot. Supposedly Drouin had not been looking and just whipped a shot on goal not realizing Laplante wasn’t ready.

Thank goodness they are teammates or who knows how badly Drouin might actually hurt Laplante. LOL.