after 1

It is 2 to 2 after 1. The USA lost a hard fought game. Incase you didn't see or notice Armstrong is back. He is backing up tonight.

McIlvane and Macdonald with the goals.

Rink notes

I am sitting at the rink getting ready to sharpen skates. The room is all set up. First off, my prayers go out to the people of Chile who mean a lot to me. I lived in the western part of Santiago, Chile for two years. I have been able to connect with a few people and found out that they are ok.

Looking across the rink I notice that Robin Bouchard is down to 14 goals to break Don Parson's record that he set last season. Luckily, that number won't go down tonight as he serves the last game of his suspension.

Craig Macdonald scored the game winner again last night and increased his league lead to 9. He now leads the league in powerplay goals with 11.

We are starting to play better on the road. In our last 5 road games we are 2-2-0-1, 4 of those games have been against the 3 teams above us. Last night was a good win for us to start this road trip. It helped scoring the first goal and building our confidence. It will be important for us to come out strong tonight and try and get that first goal.

Here are a few of the one liners that we heard from a welcoming crowd in Flint last night,
"You are nothing but a role player on a mediocre team in a sub par league"
"Hey trainer you suck too"
"Why don't you put that on your blog you ...."
"Do you guys braid each others hair"
Our new goalie Rob Mattison got a kick out of the fact that they kept chanting his name and wanted him to play in the game. I am sure the he would not have been against playing. There was one fan in particular who wanted me to mention him on my blog, so here is your shout-out. You know who you are. Thanks for making our trips to Flint so enjoyable. The new lights in the building look good.

After the game we stopped at a restaurant across the street from the rink to watch the Canada vs Slovakia game, before getting on the road to Muskegon. It got a little tense for the Canadian players, but they were happy their country pulled out a close win.

catching up!

I am going to try and catch up a little bit.

Kevin Armstrong was called up today to the Chicago Wolves. He will be there all weekend.
http://www.oursportscentral.com/services/releases/?id=3968290
This means that Sebastian Dahm will be called upon to play all weekend. The goalie that we are bringing in is no slack. He is the the top goalie in the AAHL. Look for the press release on him.

Last night was really a must win game. It was even more important with both Flint and Quad City losing. This allowed us to gain two points on all 3 teams behind us. We came out slow, but we were able to make the changes needed to win the game. Pearson continued his hot streak by adding 2 goals. He is currently 2nd in the league in shorthanded goals with 4.

Craig Macdonald's game winning goal yesterday pushed him to first in the league with 8. He is currently 4th in the league with 59 pts. He is tied for 2nd in the league with 28 goals.

Jason Lepine has been busy as of late playing in 4 games in the last 5 nights. Two of those games were for Peoria in the AHL. He currently is tied for 2nd place in defenseman scoring 35 pts, 1 behind the leader.

Apparently things are getting really bad in Flint. Looks like they need another brawl to get people to go to the game again. I do hear that they improved the lights in the building.
http://www.mlive.com/generals/index.ssf/2010/02/brendan_savage_column_the_real.html

I have a lot more to write about, but I just don't have the time right now. Have a good night.

Kinch

This was just posted on the pantagraph website about this weekends games:
http://www.pantagraph.com/sports/hockey/professional/minor/ihl/prairiethunder/article_59496d12-226c-11df-ac02-001cc4c03286.html

Tonights game

First off, I am sure that many of you are wondering about tonights jerseys. Over the summer, we planned the jersey nights. The plan was to have one a month with different themes ranging from holidays to college nights. Every night up until January we had a jersey. Many different themes changed for that month, so we elected not to do one. The Heartland jersey had always been planned for tonight. When we realized we played on Abe Lincoln's Birthday, we jumped at the opportunity to do a different theme even if it was a week before the Heartland night.

As for the Heartland jersey, when they designed the jerseys before they chose from a group of four or five. The jersey from tonight is one of the other jerseys from that group. I had no say in this and actually like one of the other jerseys not chosen. We still had game socks from the second season sitting around here, so I elected to use them because they went with the jerseys better than any others.

Many of you will be reading this after the game. After two periods we are down, however, we have had many great opportunities. Now we just need to cash in and get a few goals.

Update!

I knew that we could do it last night and beat Fort Wayne. The boys played a strong game, except for the beginning of the third when we got a little distracted, took penalties and gave up 3 goals. We battled back and got the game tying goal and got a huge goal in OT. It was the first time this year that Fort Wayne had lost in overtime. One reason I think we have a hard time beating the top teams is that we play with a lot of emotion and sometimes we get carried away and start taking lots of penalties. You can't take penalties and expect to beat these teams.

Last night was a prime example of why the 3 stars of the game don't mean anything in this league. Look at the game in Muskegon. I find it funny that they almost always pick Muskegon players. Even when they lose they find a way to slid a player or two in there. How does Juris Stals not get one of the 3? He was the only player to score 2 goals in the game and one of them came with 10 seconds left to get them a point. Beausoli only had one goal and Lundin let in 3 goals. Our game in Fort Wayne was no different. Zach Pearson had 2 goals and the last one was the OT game winner.

Today was an optional skate. With the Olympic spirit in the air, those who skated decided to play a friendly 3 on 3 game. The goalies switched off half way thru the game.
Team USA- #2 Cole Ruwe, #3 Brian Boulay, #10 Nick Elligsen, #11 TJ Schneider, and #27 Jon Booras
Team Canada- #12 Robin Gomez, #18 Greg McCauley, #19 Brett Holmberg, #21 Rick Varone, and Coach Jarrod Skalde
And the winner was....Team USA. I believe the losers had to buy lunch. Both USA and Canada won their 2nd games of the Olympics today, although it did take Canada a little extra to beat the Swiss. Can't wait to hear about that tomorrow.

This Sunday is an important day in our league. It is the last day that you can add players that have been playing in Europe. I wonder if anyone will do anything.

Oh ya, today was the first day of spring training for pitchers and catchers in Mesa, Arizona. Go Cubs!

Sitting on a bus!

Well, it has been a few days since my last post. I have been super busy. The one downside to this league, unless you are Fort Wayne, is that you don't have an assistant. I have tons of help on game days, but there is so much to do each day; keeping the locker room clean, doing laundry daily, and maintaining the equipment, take up big parts of my day.

Mike Liambas is doing good, after having emergency surgery to repair tendons on his right wrist. He was at the rink yesterday and today joking around and laughing before we left. He also celebrated his birthday yesterday. He has had a rough season so far, and although some might call what happened to him karma, I believe it will only make him a more dedicated and harder working hockey player.

Today when we arrive in Fort Wayne, I will have to make up a nameplate for Schneider. It will only take me about 10 min for the entire nameplate to sew each letter on and then the nameplate to the jersey. A couple years ago when I was in Alaska, I spent the summer working for the lady who had sewn all the jerseys for the Aces. Every day I would go there, we would spend the day sewing nameplates and #'s onto hockey jerseys, baseball jerseys and whatever other jerseys they had come in. At first I was really slow, but she showed me tricks to get more done at a faster pace. I put "RACHEL" on the back of my daughters jersey. If any of you want me to do something for your jerseys, let me know. Maybe we can work something out. Its a good thing I took Home Ec in school. I don't know what I would do if I didn't know how to sew.

Take Care.
Kinch

Off day

The team had today off with the concert going on at the USCC. I spent the day going to a movie with the family and then we went to the kids expo at the interstate center. The players took shifts handing out vouchers for tomorrows game.

Not sure if anyone noticed or not, but Jason Lepine was called up to Peoria to play tonight. He had one shot.
http://theahl.com/stats/game-summary.php?game_id=1006833

I have to go to the rink tonight to meet Fort Wayne. They played in Quad City tonight and are coming in.

Allysa and anelson35 please email me. You both are winners of two tickets to tomorrows game.

Info

Yesterday was a little harder of a practice. Everyone skated except for Jamie Carroll, Greg McCauley.

The AHL will have at least two new teams next year, one in Charlotte, NC and the other in Oklahoma City, OK. My guess is that a few cities with current AHL, will join other leagues or just plain lose there teams.

Greg McCauley did not skate again today. I think the plan is that he is going to try and play tonight.

Kevin Armstrong will get his first start in goal tonight. I would imagine that we would see Kaufman tonight, being that we have made him look good the past couple times we have played Quad.

I didn't give any tickets out tonight. I didn't have time to post yesterday, so I will do two sets of tickets for Sunday. I will post it later today who gets them.

I am excited for tonight's jerseys. I always liked Abraham Lincoln growing up. I know some of you think the jerseys are to simple, but that is how I tried to keep these ones. We are going to use the white socks from last year. I think they go better with the jerseys.

See you all tonight.

vs fort wayne

Rick Varone returns to Fort Wayne for the first time since being placed on waivers. Dahm will start in goal.

Our starters are 7, 24, 21, 4, 29,37

I will try and post more during the game.

Monday

Today we skated at 1 pm because they were still changing back to the rink after the cheerleading competition that took place in the US Cellular Coliseum. We had a new goaltender today. Look for his name to come out in a press release. He will wear #33. Also, a player was released today.
Be on the lookout for both of these.

Congrats to Craig Macdonald who won the player of the week award again. His 4th this season.

It is official, after this season Muskegon will no longer be in this league. They have opted to go to the USHL.
http://www.mlive.com/news/muskegon/index.ssf/2010/02/its_official_lumberjacks_hocke.html

The winners of the different awards in the Flint Journal.
http://www.mlive.com/generals/index.ssf/2010/02/final_results_in_the_ihl_reade.html

Super Bowl

I called it. Only a few minutes before he did it, I mentioned that Peyton Manning had yet to throw an interception. Something that he has done a lot of in the playoffs. It is going to be a few weeks of partying in New Orleans with Mardi Gras coming up. Congrats to the Saints and all the people in the state of Louisiana. It is a championship well deserved.

We had today off, but we will be back on the ice tomorrow.

Here is what the specialty jerseys will look like on Friday. They will commemorate the birthday of Abe Lincoln and the state of Illinois. Come bid on them. They will look great in your collection.

Around the IHL:

Port Huron - Last 5, 1-4-0-0 They play 3 games this week vs Flint.

Fort Wayne - Last 5, 3-2-0-0 They play 3 games this week, 1 vs Quad City, the other 2 are vs us.

Flint - Last 5, 3-2-0-0 They play 3 games this week vs Port Huron.

Dayton - Last 5, 2-3-0-0 They play 4 games this week, 2 vs Muskegon and 2 vs Quad City.

Muskegon - Last 5, 4-1-0-0 They play 2 games this week vs Dayton.

Quad City - Last 5, 3-1-0-1 They play 4 games this week vs us, vs Fort Wayne, and 2 vs Dayton.

Bloomington - Last 5, 1-3-0-1 We play 3 games this week, 2 vs Fort Wayne and vs Quad City.

Troubles vs Muskegon

I am sitting at the rink waiting for the team to arrive. I was looking through the game notes and I found a few things that I thought you might like. It looks like Muskegon is the "Port Huron" of last year. Remember how much trouble we had with them.

We only have two players to score two or more goals against them. Guess who they are? It might suprise you. Gomez has 4 and Bagron has 3. Macdonald only has 1 and Booras has 0. Yes that is a zero.

The plus minus doesn't look any better unless we are playing golf.
Bagron -9
Macdonald -8
Several at -7 and -6.

Lets hope that this all changes tonight and we have a better outcome. Gotta go they are walking in the door.
We can't beat the best teams unless we have our best players.

@ Muskegon

Wow, we were terrible tonight. It is hard to win if your best players aren't your best players. Tomorrow we are back at it, hopefully we can get a point or two. I really don't know what else to write about.

Congrats to my buddy Anton Khudobin for getting his first NHL win with the Minnesota Wild.

Broadstreet Bullies

Well maybe we should just wear our gold jerseys the rest of the year. After all, they do resemble to orange Flyers jerseys with the white name bars. Brendan Savage, writer with the Flint Journal, has continued to write about how cheap we are, and how we are a bunch of goons. We attack non-fighters. There is so much that we can tell from a box score. Gomez got a 5 minute major for going after Ronan. I wondering why he did it? Gomez must be a goon. What you couldn't see on the box score is that Ronan hit Liambas with a viscous elbow that sent him to the locker room. Gomez stood up for his teammate. Liambas then came back later in the game and when he tried to fight Ronan, it took a few punches from Liambas before Ronan defended himself. Our guys stand up for each other. That is what happened the other night against Muskegon as well. Oh and once again, Nolan did play in the 3rd period, but the box score was wrong, so you wouldn't be able to tell that unless you were at the game.
http://www.mlive.com/generals/index.ssf/2010/02/flint_generals_allow_five_powe.html
As for a earlier article, don't tempt me, maybe I will just put Larry, Moe, and Curly on their jerseys for our next trip into Flint.
http://www.mlive.com/generals/index.ssf/2010/01/brendan_savage_column_blooming.html

We leave for Muskegon at 7 am tomorrow. We will be wearing gold jerseys. Hopefully we can break our string of bad luck against them.

Cole Ruwe will not be making the trip with us. He will be staying behind with some nagging injuries. We will be bringing in defenseman Ryan Huggett, who has been playing with the Evansville Icemen. He will be wearing #11.
http://www.pantagraph.com/sports/hockey/professional/minor/ihl/prairiethunder/article_5cff1454-11f3-11df-a83e-001cc4c002e0.html

Movie Review #2 by Justin Sawyer

Blindside - This has been a movie that I put off seeing for a while now because I wasn't sure if they could make another football movie that would be able to tell a new story....fortunately I was wrong and the story was great. Its about a young underprivileged kid who gets a chance taken on him and he takes that chance and runs with it. The part by Sandra Bullock is played perfectly and Big Mike does a great job as well.... as I'm sure this movie might not win an Oscar. I definitely was happy to pay the 7 dollars to see it. 3/5 stars.

Legion - Alright another classic angels demons movie between good and evil? This time it has a little bit of a twist. If you liked movies like Max Payne or Constantine then Legion might be a good pick for you. The thing that makes this movie unique is that God is actually trying to kill off mankind and the Angels are protecting us. The graphics are great and I would say the ending of the movie is a little weak but the overall experience is decent. I would only recommend seeing this if you enjoy these type of films or you may not enjoy it. 2.5/5 stars

When in Rome - So i was dragged to this one against my will with a couple guys and their girlfriends. I really hadn't heard much about this or really cared to see it. Fortunately for a chick flick this movie actually made me laugh hard a few times out loud in the theatre. It was overall not a good movie but the fact that there was some funny parts made it enjoyable and the actress from Forgetting Sarah Marshall was just as good looking as ever which kept my attention for the 90 minutes. When I left, I was happy I went and I would recommend this one if you have a date or for a group of ladies to go to. Overall I would say 2.5/ 5 stars.

Bits and pieces

I went for a massage today at Bodies in Balance. It was awesome. I recommend it to anyone in a little bit of pain. Kathy does a great job.

Brendan Savage, the writer for the Flint Journal, has a poll going for the biggest villain in the league. I find it funny that we have turned into the bad boys of the league.
http://www.mlive.com/generals/index.ssf/2010/02/poll_ihls_biggest_villain.html
He also has a poll going for the worst and best fans.
Worst - My vote is Flint. I am not afraid to say it.
http://www.mlive.com/generals/index.ssf/2010/02/poll_which_ihl_team_has_the_wo.html
Best - Our fans, no question!
http://www.mlive.com/generals/index.ssf/2010/01/poll_which_ihl_team_has_the_be.html
It must have been a while since we last played Flint, they have nothing to write about. They have signed Chris Kovalcik. Maybe there will be some more fireworks tomorrow.

Noel Coultice was placed on waivers. He had 2 goals, 2 assists and a team high -11 in 23 games.

Congrats to Craig Macdonald who earned his 3rd player of the week award.
Congrats to Jon Booras who earned Player of the Month honors for the month of January.

Keep the grades coming. I like some of them, while I think others are way off.

Suz1955 you are the winner of tickets for tomorrows game. Please email me so I can get your information.

See you all tomorrow.
Kinch

Grades

Today was supposed to be an off day, however the guys came in and skated today.

The writer in Muskegon gave midseason grades to their players. Check it out:
http://www.mlive.com/lumberjacks/index.ssf/2010/01/lumberjacks_mid-season_grades.html
What grades would you give to our players? Please comment. I am really interested in seeing what you have to say.

Good night I am going to bed!
Kinch