Gems weekend
Tonight: at Evansille, 8:35 p.m.
Saturday, Fort Wayne, 7:30 p.m.
Sunday: Quad City, 5 p.m.
TROTWOOD — With 24 games remaining in their inaugural Central Hockey League season, the Dayton Gems got a boost this week. Dayton dealt talented rookie Erik Boisvert to the Evansville IceMen minutes before the league’s Monday trade deadline for winger Damian Surma.
Surma, 30, from Lincoln Park, Mich., is a proven scorer (team-high 22 goals in 43 games with Evansville) who brings veteran poise to a young Gems squad in the thick of the Turner Conference playoff race. He’s faced Dayton plenty this season and is pumped about the move.
“They were tough to play against,” Surma said of his new team, which plays his old one tonight. “The D is solid and there are a lot of small, fast forwards with skill. Great goaltending, too. Any time you have that, it’s a good combination. It has the making of a really good team and I just hope to fit into the puzzle.”
Head coach Brian Gratz said it was tough to move Boisvert but Surma’s addition is important, particularly with alternate captain Chris Lipsett still injured.
“Being able to pick up Damian Surma, a guy who played in the NHL, a guy who has scored a lot of goals this year and is a veteran presence, that’s something we definitely needed to put in our lineup,” Gratz said.
Surma, drafted 174th overall in the 1999 NHL Entry Draft by the Carolina Hurricanes, was a junior standout with the Plymouth Whalers. He’s played all over the map, including a stint in Kalamazoo, Mich., where he won a UHL championship alongside Gems captain Greg Labenski and with the ECHL’s Stockton Thunder, where he teamed with buddy and fellow Michigan native Brandon Naurato, a current Gem.
But his career highlight was the two games he played for Carolina in the 2002-03 and 2003-04 seasons. Surma was an overage junior when the Canes went to the Stanley Cup in 2002 and that next season, he scored in his lone game with the club and then assisted in his second the following year. The goal came against the Ottawa Senators when he and former Carolina sniper Jeff O’Neill rushed in on goalie Patrick Lalime.
“Jeff took a slapper that went off of Lalime up in the air, and as I was coming in, I batted it out of the air,” said Surma, who compared his brief NHL experience to being like a little kid in a candy store. “If I had 20 cracks at it, I might be able to do it once. I’m just glad that was the one time I could do it.
“I always joke with my buddies that only a couple guys in the NHL have averaged a point a game.”
Back to business
Naurato was one of the hottest players in the league before he went down for a month following an ugly knee-on-knee hit in a New Year’s Day game with his old team Fort Wayne. After a frustrating stint of treatment and rehab, Naurato recently returned and resumed the scoring pace that saw him net seven goals and five assists in his first eight games in Dayton.
“I’d still like to be ahead of where I am,” said the recently turned 26-year-old. “I’ll be dealing with it the rest of the year.”
Despite not being at his best healthwise, Naurato scored twice and had an assist in his first two games back last week, giving him 15 points in 10 games. His return is timely and his physical presence and skill should help, specifically on the power play.
Naurato once spent two months sidelined with a shoulder injury when he was in junior but this latest stint was just as tough when the ice was off limits. How to spend time becomes an issue.
“My roommate (Matt Miller) loves video games so there were a few more of those,” he said with a laugh, noting that the game of choice is Call of Duty: Black Ops. “I’m trying to break the habit now that I’m back healthy. (Derek) MacIntyre and (Matthew) Larke play it every day. I always hear those guys chirping in the other room.”
Whole lotta love
Some Gems fans will be getting a special Valentine’s Day visit. For $50 ($40 for season ticket-holders), fans, presumably female, will receive two ticket vouchers, flowers from Furst Florist and a Valentine’s Day card signed by the team, all delivered by a Gem of their choice. Participants are asked to list their top five players, or mascot Blade, in the request and the Gems will do their best to accommodate. Photos will be posted to www.daytongems.com. Fans must be within a 20-mile radius of Hara Arena to be eligible.
In addition to the Valentine’s Day package, fans can also win a date with Gems forward Kyle Bochek on Tuesday, Feb. 15.
“He (Gratz) said the front office was looking to set me up on a date for Valentine’s Day and if I would be willing to do it,” the 22-year-old from Port Severn, Ontario commented on the team’s website. “After he gave me the details, I said, 'Sign me up!’ ”
The date includes dinner at the Spaghetti Warehouse and skating at downtown’s RiverScape MetroPark. A portion of the proceeds will go to the Noble Circle Project of Dayton and the Women’s Wellness Fund at the Kettering Medical Center.
Bidding, which can be done at the ebay link http://tinyurl.com/4ftkq9y, began at $50 on Feb. 8 and will run until Sunday.
Think pink
Saturday’s game with Fort Wayne is Pink in the Rink Night at Hara. The Gems will be wearing special pink jerseys, which will be auctioned off afterwards to raise money for the fight against breast cancer.
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