IHL Hockey Fight Bracket

Ok... So Justin Cohn laid out a list of the top IHL Fighters on his blog..
http://jgwebblogs.typepad.com/ice_chips_0607/2008/04/jgs-fighter-ran.html#comments

I, in the spirit of March Madness, devised a bracket system to put these rankings into a tournament style playoff. I didn't allow the highest seed to have a bye. Instead I gave the middle ranked (#8) player a bye.... Yeah so it happens to be Henley.. It's not like this is in any way official, its just for fun. Here are Justin's rankings... (I posted a link to his page, so I hope he doesn't mind that I borrowed his rankings...)

The Journal Gazette’s ranking of best IHL fighters:
1) Mitch Woods, FW (22 fights thru March 25)
2) Robert Snowball, PH (12)
3) Olivier Legault, FW (22)
4) Jeremy Cornish, Blm. (9)
5) Kris Mallette, Fli. (16)
6) Donnie Margettie, PH (12)
7) Kevin Bertram, FW (12)
8) Brent Henley, FW (6)
9) Tyler Willis, Kal. (13)
10) Chris Kovalcik, Mus. (20)
11) Sam Miller, Blm (18)
12) David Segal, Mus. (22)
13) Jeff Ewasko, Blm. (17)
14) Ryan Jorde, Fli. (5)
15) Neil Clarke, Blm. (8)

So I broke this down and gave Henley the bye only because it made for better match-ups this way.

Round 1
Mitch Woods vs. Neil Clarke--------Woods
Ryan Jorde vs. Robert Snowball----Jorde in a close fight
Oliver Legault vs. Jeff Ewasko------Legault all day
Jeremy Cornish vs. David Segal-----Cornish
Kris Mallette vs. Sam Miller---------Mallette
Chris Kovalcheck vs. Don Margettie-Kovalcheck
Kevin Bertram vs. Tyler Willis------Bertram

Round 2
Woods vs. Jorde-----------Jorde takes this one.
Legault vs. Cornish--------Legault gets the edge.
Mallette vs. Kovalcheck----Kovalcheck, but close.
Bertram vs. Henley--------Gotta take Henley in this one.

Semi-Finals
Jorde vs. Legault----------Gotta take Jorde based on this years fights between the two.
Kovalcheck vs. Henley-----Henley gets the job done in this one.

Finals
Jorde vs. Henley---------I think Henley takes this on if healthy

Obviously there are major flaws I'm sure that can be pointed out with this, but its fun to look at. For instance, Snowball could easily beat Jorde in the first round. Bertram vs. Henley is cool to debate. Depending on how you match them up the outcome could differ widely.

Share your thoughts.

25 games to go....

We find ourselves speeding through another season of Komet Hockey. With 25 games remaining, the Komets are atop the IHL regular season standings. Riding an awesome home winning streak, its hard to find much to complain about. The Komets road record is the only real issue. As another fan pointed out to me. The K's are only walking away with wins 50% of the time on the road. (Taking away the shootouts and overtime nonsense that makes all the dashes in the record) 12 wins in 24 road games. Meanwhile, at home the K's are victorious 81% of the time. This trend could be the only thing that slows the Komets down come playoff time. Drop one to Flint at home and the playoffs take on a whole new look. The Komet/General series has been a giant brightspot to me in the new IHL. I thought the K-Wings may take on the same roughness, but Kalamazoo just doesn't seem to have it in them. The Praire Thunder can be chippy at times, but with all of their talent leaving them high and dry for Europe, they don't have much to look forward to besides next season. Muskegon could be a playoff dark horse, you can never count the Fury out. I just believe they need more effort out of veteran players if they want to make a serious run. So in the spirit of lazy blogging..... It's time for the JungleMonkey 2/3 point player grades.....

Players getting an "A"
Mathieu Curadeau, Nick Boucher, P.C. Drouin, Luciano Aquino, David Huckalo, and Guy Dupuis.

B's go to....
Colin Chaulk, Mitch Woods, Kevin Bertam, Matt Reynolds, Konstantin Shafranov, Brandon Warner, and Kevin Reiter.

C's.....
Sergei Durdin, Terry Marchant, Jake Pence, Kevin Hansen, and Evgeny Saidachev.

Incompletes....
Brent Henley, Oliver Legault, and Maksim Shirokov.