Icehawks hold on to beat Flint 4-3

The Icehawks are starting to move away from the pack of teams following them for first place. Last night with the Icehawks victory and a Kalamazoo loss, the Icehawks now have a 5 point lead in first place in the IHL. What has helped the Icehawks get there is a now 9 game winning streak on the road and last night the Hawks were on the road for their 3rd game in a row and like the 2 before, the Icehawks came out on top, this time by a final score of 4-3 in front of 2,376 fans at Perani Arena.

In what was a rematch of last Saturday in Port Huron when these two teams last met. Things ended heated with Flint's goalie, Chad Alban, wanting to fight Icehawks goaltender, Larry Sterling. Things would not get as heated this time around mostly due to the fact Alban did not play as he had prior commitments.

The Icehawks would jump to a very early 3-1 lead in the first period. Derek Merlini scored one of his two goals first when he got his 5th goal of the year to put the Icehawks up quickly 1-0. Nick Lindberg and Jeremy Tucker had assists on the play.

Rob Voltera would tie the game up for the Generals at 8:37 when he scored his 2nd of the year. But the Icehawks would respond to that with 2 unanswered goals in the period. Kerry Bowman (4) (Robert Snowball, Jason Chafe) would find the back of the net first to make the game 2-1 then Derek Patrosso (7) (Tab Lardner, Lindberg) would make the game 3-1 going into intermission. The Hawks outshot the Generals 16-8 in the period.

In the 2nd period the two teams would trade goals. Derek Merlini (6) (Daniel Tetrault, Lindberg) would nab his 2nd of the night to make it a 3 goal game. But Steve Rymsha would score late in the 2nd period to give the Generals momentum heading into the locker room.

The Icehawks would kill most of the 3rd period off trying to hold the Generals from creating any sort of a comeback. But at 19:06 with the goalie pulled and the Generals on the power play from a Bowman interference call, Rymsha would score his 2nd of the night to get the Generals within 1 but the Icehawks were able to kill off the remaining 54 seconds of the game to win their 9th straight road victory.

POINTS OF THE GAME

Port Huron was 1 for 3 on the power play. Flint was 1 for 7

Larry Sterling (17-9-1-0) got the win for the Icehawks stopping 21 of 24 shots. Adam Dekker (0-2) got the loss for the Generals stopping 29 of 33 shots he faced.

Jeff Zehr, Ian Turner were scratches for the Icehawks. Jason Chafe left the game in the 3rd period with a bruised knee.

Chris Bogas is expected to sign a contract later this week for the Hawks.

The Icehawks return to action Thursday at home when they welcome the Bloomington PrairieThunder to town.

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