Icehawks win preseason scorefest

The Port Huron Icehawks and Flint Generals combined for 14 goals, scoring 8 in the 3rd period, as the Icehawks won the preseason opener 8-6 in front of 1,282 fans at McMorran Arena.

The action started 28 seconds into the first period as Icehawk's rookie Rory Smith went toe to toe with Flint's Rusty Mckie. Smith got the best of Mckie getting a nice couple of rights before they finally fell to the ice. About over 30 seconds later other Icehawks rookie Paul Yovanic got into it with Bill Horton, both of them recieving fighting majors and misconducts. Scoring in the first period came 7:10 in when Tab Lardner scored from Jeremy Tucker and Brett Aimone. The Generals answered back when Nick Bet scored off a redirection in front of Manon Rheaume. That goal was assisted by Jozef Budaj and Matt Caranci. The Generals then scored again on Rheaume when Justin Styffe scored unassisted. Both goals were powerplay goals. Manon Rheaume who was the first female to play an NHL game played the first period for the Hawks stoping 8 of 10 shots. She signed autographs during the 2nd intermission. She was offically released after the game.

The second period had a couple of good fights. First, Rory Smith got into his second fight of the night when he dropped the gloves with Flint's veteran Kris Mallette, both players exchanged punches before Smith caught Mallette with a couple lefts dropping him to his knees. Over 30 seconds later, Paul Yovanic and Matt Caranci dropped the gloves both recieving misconducts and Flint's Caranci recieved an equipment minor for not having his jersey tied down. With the 2nd period winding down the Icehawks tied it up on a Frank Furdero with assists from Jeff Zehr and Nick Lindberg,

The third period was one that no goalie wanted to be a part of. In 20 minutes of play the teams combined for 10 goals. First Port Huron scored on rookie Kerry Bowman's goal (Justin Gutwald) to take the 3-2 lead, Flint responded right after with a goal by Rusty Mckie (Ben Boudreau) to tie it up. The Icehawks then took the lead again when former General Jeff Zehr (Jeremy Tucker, Nick Lindberg) scored. Less then a minute later Flint's Kris Mallette (Justin Styffe, Derrick Ryan) scored to tie it up once again 4-4. Then Flint took the lead 5-4 with a goal from Dan Kohanchuk (Ben Boudreau, Jozef Budaj) 5.22 into the period. The Icehawks would answer right back to tie it up 5-5 8:41 into the period with a goal from Rick Ferroni (Daniel Tetrault, Nick Lindberg). The Generals would go on the powerplay however and scored to retake the lead 6-5 when Derrick Ryan (Kris Mallette, Brian Jacques) knotched the power play goal. The Icehawks came back though 16:57 into the period to tie it up when Rookie Defensemen Brett Aimone (Tab Lardner, Kerry Bowman) put one home. Less then a minute later Nick Lindberg (Frank Furdero) put the Hawks up for good when he scored the 9th goal of the period that put up the Icehawks 7-6 before Jeff Zehr put in the empty netter to finally seal the deal 8-6 as your final.

Goaltender Mike Minard who looks to back up Larry Sterling (DNP) during the season did not look sharp during the 3rd period giving up 4 goals in 40 minutes making 12 saves on 16 shots.

The Icehawks return to preseason action tonight when they travel to Flint to take on these same Generals at 7:30 PM. Remember you can catch the game on IHL GameCenter.

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