Iowa Stars Report

Monday, February 04, 2008

The past week

Recent Games
Date Opponent Result
2/1 Grand Rapids Won 3-0
2/2 Grand Rapids Lost 3-2

The Iowa Stars split a pair of games last week and remain on the outside looking in as far as a playoff spot.

Iowa won 3-0 Friday night against Grand Rapids behind 32-save shutout by Tobias Stephan. The next night against Grand Rapids the Stars took a 2-0 first period lead, but ended up losing 3-2.

Iowa is 22-24-2-2 on the season with 30 games remaining and is six points out of a playoff spot based on the AHL's playoff seeding formula, which has a few wrinkles in it.

The top four teams in each division qualify for the playoffs. Iowa is currently 13 points out of fourth place, but as a member of the West Division Iowa could qualify by finishing fifth in the West and having a better record than the fourth place team in the North Division. Under that scenario the Stars are just six points out of a spot. They are, however, battling at least four other teams for that spot.

Polak returns to Czech Republic

Forward Vojtech Polak wanted to return home to Czech Republic to play for his former team, and the Dallas Stars granted his request. The Stars assigned Polak to Karlovy Vary late last week.

"He wanted to go back to play with his home club. That meant something to him," Iowa directory of hockey operations Scott White told the Des Moines Register. "Mentally, he wasn't in a good place. He wanted to get passion back in his game and play more."

Polak had six goals and ten assists in 35 games with Iowa this season. He has played a total of five NHL games in his career, picking up no points. The 2nd round pick (36th overall) in the 2003 NHL Entry Draft will be a restricted free agent this summer.

Polak is the third Iowa player to leave for Europe this season. Defenseman Vadim Khomitski and forward Konstantin Pushkarev both left for Russia. Pushkarev has since returned to Iowa.

The door has been left open for Polak to possibly return in the future.

Polak scored a goal in first game back in the Czech League.

Injury update
  • James Neal (knee) could return within the next week.
  • Francis Wathier (shoulder) is out
Transactions
  • F Vojtech Polak assigned by Dallas to Karlovy Vary of Czech League on January 31
Upcoming Schedule
February 8
Chicago at   Iowa 7:07 pm CST
February 9
Peoria at   Iowa 7:07 pm CST
Statistics
No.

Player

  Pos GP G A PTS +/- PIM PPG SHG
19 Toby Petersen C 50 17 25 42 -4 22 5 0
7 Marty Sertich C 49 14 16 30 -9 20 6 0
21 Janos Vas LW 50 13 17 30 -9 24 4 2
27 Dan Jancevski (total)  D 45 4 16 20 -30 58 3 0
13 Konstantin Pushkarev RW 23 7 12 19 +4 12 3 0
15 Perttu Lindgren C 43 4 14 18 -13 0 0 0
25 Chris Conner LW 25 6 11 17 -3 2 1 1
4 Chris Lee D 39 5 12 17 -4 28 3 0
24 Vojtech Polak RW 35 6 10 16 -8 18 1 0
14 Nolan Baumgartner D 46 4 12 16 -10 35 4 0
8 Jussi Timonen (total)  D 37 0 16 16 -11 22 0 0
44 B.J. Crombeen RW 45 7 7 14 -2 109 0 0
26 Bryce Lampman (total)  D 46 6 8 14 -10 20 2 0
10 Marius Holtet RW 45 9 4 13 -17 16 2 0
18 James Neal LW 32 5 7 12 -7 24 3 0
3 Trevor Byrne D 45 1 6 7 -10 59 0 0
17 Richard Clune LW 22 3 3 6 -5 78 0 0
20 Joel Lundqvist C 8 2 4 6 -3 2 0 0
23 Tommy Wandell C 25 2 3 5 -5 10 0 0
5 Mark Fistric D 30 1 4 5 -9 48 0 0
16 Loui Eriksson LW 2 1 2 3 +1 2 0 0
33 Vadim Khomitski D 7 1 0 1 -1 10 0 0
9 John Lammers LW 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
32 Brad Winchester LW 1 0 0 0 -1 2 0 0
2 Nicklas Grossman D 10 0 0 0 +1 10 0 0
11 Aaron Gagnon C 16 0 0 0 -2 8 0 0
31 Tobias Stephan G 39 0 0 0 0 2 0 0
No.

Player

 GP Mins W L SOL Avg. GA SA SVS % SO
31 Tobias Stephan 39 2190 17 16 2 2.60 95 1026 931 .907 3
ECHL Statistics
No. 

Player

 Pos GP G A PTS +/- PIM PPG SHG
24 Aaron Gagnon C 15 6 9 15 +3 2 1 1
8 Richard Clune LW 19 1 9 10 +5 41 0 0
19 Alexander Naurov RW 36 1 6 7 +5 14 0 0
11 Tom Wandell C 3 3 0 3 +1 2 2 0
20 John Lammers LW 10 5 3 8 +2 4 3 0

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