Despite a few sketchy stretches, Gratz was pleased with his players’ tenacity through the four home games — and their speed.
“That’s definitely one of the things I want to accomplish, is to have a team that will play hard and use our speed to our advantage,” said Gratz, who structures his practices with functional skating drills to keep guys fit.
This group is definitely a couple of steps above last year’s International Hockey League version of the Gems, but only about 2,000 fans, total, visited Hara over two games last weekend to see what appears to be a good team with some potential.
Block party
The Gems did a good job sacrificing their bodies in the 5-3 win over the Odessa Jackalopes on Saturday by blocking a number of shots, a trait most strong teams possess.
Gratz estimates his team hit double-digit blocks that night, in part because of some gaudy shot totals by the Quad City Mallards the previous night.
“I got on the guys and said there was no reason to be giving up this many shots and it takes a concerted effort to go out in the D zone and limit scoring opportunities but also get in front of pucks,” the coach said. “I want them to sacrifice for the betterment of the team. It can be a momentum changer.”
As much as it can hurt, the players are on board.
“Blocking shots is what we’re going to have to do,” said first-line forward Brett Lutes.
Natural habitat
The Gems were in Kettering on Tuesday to lend their help to a Habitat for Humanity project. They expected to spend the day working on a house for a family of Sudanese refugees, but Mother Nature intervened.
“We showed up there at 9:45 and put in some good work and got some things accomplished,” Gratz said. “At 12:30 or so, the tornado sirens went off and we had to pack up shop and get out of there.”
The winds were wreaking havoc, especially for some of the team’s lightweights.
“We had little Tommy Boudreau scaling the ladder to put up exterior insulation and the wind started picking up,” Gratz said. “I was getting a little worried.” The Gems expect to be active in the Dayton community this season.
Shuffle the deck
Center Tim Hartung went on IR Wednesday with a lower body injury, leaving a hole up front for Saturday’s game against the Bloomington PrairieThunder. But big defenseman Matt McCue was activated from IR and will be part of the forward rotation when needed. McCue played some forward last season with the Bakersfield Condors and the Manitoba Moose.
Gratz said Bloomington would be a tough opponent. The PrairieThunder are 3-0 with just six goals against. John Snowden, a Gem last season, leads the team with three goals, while Marco Emond is the reigning CHL goaltender of the week with a 1.94 goals-against average and .938 save percentage in the three wins.
“It should be challenging,” he said of trying to score on Bloomington’s stingy D. “You can’t discount the fact that they have a pretty high octane offense as well.”
Gem of the Week
Lutes deserves some strong consideration for his three-point effort in the win over Odessa but Jeff Jakaitis was the key piece. He stopped 66 of 71 shots in both games combined, recording two straight wins. He also made a key save in the dying seconds of the Jackalopes game with the visitors pressing on a 6-on-4 power play after pulling their goalie.
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