Fort Wayne, IN - By all indications 19-year-old Justin Hodgman is going to have a terrific career in professional hockey after he finishes his junior career next year. The thing is there is a superb chance the Fort Wayne forward will never score a goal so important or satisfying in his life again.

The experts who picked the Fort Wayne Komets to win the Turner Cup were correct after all, but it took all seven games, including over 100 minutes of hockey in the final game for them to knock off Port Huron club which nearly stunned the entire league. It was the fifth Turner Cup for the Komets and the second for Coach Al Sims, who also won one in 1993 with the club.

In addition to pushing the Komets to the brink, Stan Drulia’s Icehawks club provided the IHL with a huge boost as the last two games of the series, one in Port Huron and the final in Fort Wayne were complete sellouts. Some fans were left outside in Fort Wayne for the final game as the entire Allen County War Memorial Coliseum was filled to capacity.

Fort Wayne appeared as if they were going to run away with this game as they took a two goal lead and apparently had Port Huron stymied and spent. But the Icehawks battled back to tie the game and force the marathon overtime.

Hodgman led all IHL scorers in the playoffs with 14 points and was named as the Playoff MVP by the league after the contest, although goaltender Nick Boucher who won all four games in the finals for the Komets would have been an excellent choice too.

The two clubs battled through a scoreless first period and a portion of the second frame until Hodgman began the scoring just after six minutes into the period. Hodgman skated up the ice on a two-on-one and used his teammate as a decoy before firing a hard shot past Port Huron netminder Larry Sterling. Komets captain Guy Dupuis, who later had a portion of the Turner Cup fall apart when he lifted it during the post game celebration, opened the lead to two when he blasted a pass from Konstantin Shafranov past Sterling from the slot with the Komets on the man advantage.

Port Huron began their comeback with a score from Jeff Zehr. Zehr handled a pass from behind the net by Rich Hansen and sneaked it past Boucher for the score. The lead would last until the final minute when in dramatic fashion the Icehawks sucked the air out of the building. Just when it appeared the Komets would win in regulation Port Huron pulled Sterling for an extra attacker and tied the game when Tab Lardner’s shot hit not one, but two, Komets player’s skates and went past Boucher.

Lardner’s tally would stand for two periods of overtime action as both teams had their opportunities to claim the championship. Perhaps the best opportunity belonged to the Icehawks who nearly scored into an open net only to see the cage come off the moorings at the last second.

The winning sequence was set up by an unfortunate penalty by the Icehawks who were called for too many men on the ice at the 18:17 mark of the second overtime. Port Huron killed the penalty, but just six seconds after the penalty expired Hodgman tucked in a rebound of a Guy Dupuis shot for the winner.

The goal spoiled a fine effort in this game, and the entire playoffs, from Sterling who made 57 saves over the course of the evening and set off a wild celebration by a Komets club who had to come back from a 3-1 deficit in this series in order to win.