News release from the Komets:
Komets open 61st season Friday
(October 10, 2012) – The Komets will open their 61st season of Fort Wayne Komet Hockey Friday night when the Kalamazoo Wings visit the Allen County War Memorial Coliseum. There are almost 2,500 tickets remaining for opening night as of this writing.
The Komets will launch their inaugural season in the ECHL. The ECHL, celebrating its 25th anniversary season, consists of two conferences, five divisions and 23 teams. The Komets will skate in the North Division of the Eastern Conference along with Evansville, Cincinnati, Kalamazoo and Toledo. Fort Wayne will face division rivals on 47 occasions, making up 65% of the schedule. Friday night’s home opener marks the third straight year the Komets have opened the season on home ice. The K’s will try to snap a two-game winless streak for home openers. Overall Fort Wayne is 38-17-5 over the past 60 home openers. The Komets are 32-24-4 in 60 season openers.
4500 games—The Komets are only 10 games away from reaching the 4,500-game milestone. The historic Fort Wayne hockey club was established in 1952 and has skated 4,490 games thru last year’s 60th anniversary season.
Wings here for the first of six visits—The Komets will face the Wings 16 times this season. Friday night’s home opener at the Coliseum will be the first of six visits by Kalamazoo. The Komets are slated to skate 11 games at Wings Stadium in Kalamazoo. Friday night’s tilt will be the 358th regular season meeting between the Komets and Wings. Fort Wayne leads the all-time series 184-127-46. This season marks the first meetings between the two teams since the 2008-09 IHL season when the the Komets eliminated the Wings in the first round of the playoffs 4-2 and advanced to the finals to win the Turner Cup Championship.
After Friday—Saturday the Komets skate their first ECHL road game at Evansville at 8:15pm ET. It will be the first of five trips to the Ford Center this year. Last year, the Komets were 7-4-2 in 13 meetings with the IceMen.
Following Saturday’s trip to Evansville, the Komets will return home for practices at the Coliseum at 10am each day next week Monday thru Saturday, Oct. 15-20.
Returning champions, familiar faces on the roster—Colin Chaulk (C), Stephon Thorne (LW), Brett Smith (C), Chris Auger (C), J.M. Rizk (RW), Kaleigh Schrock (RW), Daniel Maggio (D) and Brent Henley (D) are returning Komet champs from last season. Additional players Komet fans should recognize in the lineup are Brandon Marino (RW) and Eric Giosa (C) from last year’s Quad City CHL team. Tyler Butler (D) skated with Arizona in the CHL last season and goaltender Charlie Effinger was in the nets for Missouri when the Komets faced the Mavericks in the second round of last year’s CHL playoffs.
Sims marks 10th anniversary season—Head coach Al Sims is returning for his 10th season as Komet head coach. Sims has collected five championships during his reign as Fort Wayne’s head coach, including last year’s CHL Presidents’ Cup Trophy and owns the Komet record for most wins by a head coach. Friday night Coach Sims will be aiming for his 405th Fort Wayne regular season win when the Komets meet Kalamazoo.
Get in your seats early Friday—Over 10,000 fans have witnessed each Komet home opener the past 10 straight years. Many festivities are planned prior to opening faceoff Friday night. The ceremonies get underway at 7:45pm with the traditional introductions of the Komet Legends, followed by a final parade lap with the Presidents’ Cup in honor of the Komets’ 2012 Championship and the presentation of the championship rings. Fans are encouraged to arrive early for the festivities. Still plenty of great seats remain on sale.
All single game tickets and season tickets are on sale. Single game tickets can be purchased at the Coliseum Ticket Office and online at www.ticketMaster.com. Season tickets are on sale at the Komet office, 1010 Memorial Way, Fort Wayne. For information visit www.komets.com, or call 260-483-0011.
Komets.com— Fans are enjoying the new official team website for the Komets at www.komets.com featuring an interactive calendar of the Komets’ schedule, information about all Komet events as well as home and road games. In addition to news and information, the new site features an on-line team store and navigation of the ticketing process. Fans are able to download and access photo galleries, player information, video, audio and other multi-media features as well as follow Komet gamecasts live and much more.
Friday night Marathon nights return– Continuing this year, Friday nights will be Marathon Nights at Komet home games. Fans can take advantage of buy-one-get-one-free ticket offers for any of the nine Friday night home games beginning with this Friday night’s home opener. Fill-Up Cards are available at all participating Marathon stations.
Komet Hockey on WOWO AM & FM and at Xfinity KometCast– The Komets and WOWO Radio AM 1190 and FM 92.3 will partner once again for 2012-13. Fort Wayne legendary broadcaster Bob Chase will call the action radio-rinkside for his 60th anniversary season behind the Komet microphone. All home and road broadcasts can also be heard worldwide at www.komets.com at Xfinity KometCast.
INC Soundoff with the Komets returns to Monday nights — The Komets, Indiana’s News Center and title sponsor PHP present a live weekly televised sports program on Monday nights at 7:30 on WPTA TV 21 Alive. The half-hour show will be televised from the WPTA TV studios each week with INC’s Tommy Schoegler as host and will feature highlights, interviews and call-ins as Komet players and personnel serve as co-hosts.
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