BLOOMINGTON (Ill.) – The Bloomington PrairieThunder will attempt to get back on the winning track Saturday night when it meets defending International Hockey League champion Fort Wayne at 6:30 in Allen County Memorial Coliseum.

The PrairieThunder and Komets both suffered losses Friday as Bloomington fell at home, 4-1, to Flint and Fort Wayne lost at Muskegon, 6-4. The defeat dropped the PrairieThunder to fourth in the league standings with eight points. The Komets dropped into a tie for first with Muskegon with 10 points.

This is the third meeting of the season between the teams with each time holding one victory. However, both of those games were in Bloomington. This marks just the second road game of the year for the PrairieThunder, which is 1-0 on the road. Fort Wayne is 2-0 at home.

Goalie Scott Fankhouser is 1-1 against the Komets.

Fort Wayne leads the overall series, 18-10-0-0.

Forward John Nail returned to practice this week s to action for the PrairieThunder this weekend after sitting out two games last week with a finger injury. Nail suffered a broken finger in practice Oct. 29, but returned to the ice Tuesday.

Bloomington defenseman Jason Lepine and Nello Ferrara are both out with injuries. Ferrara started the season on the injured reserve list with a knee injury, and is eligible to come off the IR on Saturday.

Lepine, who figured to be one of the PrairieThunder’s top defenders, suffered a torn ACL in his right knee during the 5-3 win at Flint on Oct. 25 and is scheduled to have surgery Tuesday. Lepine hopes to return to the lineup in March.

 League leaders 

Don Parsons is tied for second in the league in scoring with 15 points each.

Parsons ranks first in goals scored with  nine and power play goals with three. He leads the league in shots with 38

Booras is second in assists with nine and power play goals with three.

Defenseman Shaun Fisher is first in power play assists with five. He is second among defensemen in scoring with seven points and assists with seven.

A.J. Bozoian is third among defensemen in shots with 20.

Travis Granbois is tied for first in game-winning goals with two

Goalie Scott Fankhouser is tied for first in wins with three and second in saves with 152.

Bloomington, unfortunately, leads the league in power play goals against, allowing 11.

      Booras had a string of scoring at least one point in all games played this season snapped at six      Friday night.

      Don Parsons has recorded at least one point in six of the first seven games

       Center Brent Clarke had a streak of scoring at least one point in four straight games snapped Friday night.

      Leo Thomas has scored at least one point in the three games he has played.

Parsons needs just eight goals to become the all-time leader in career goals scored in professional minor league hockey. Parsons moved into second-place on the all-time list with 670 in 16 years. Former Flint coach Kevin Kerr is the all-time leader with 677.

Parsons has averaged 41 goals per season during his career. The Boston native also ranks 16^th in all-time points scored at 1,290 (an average of just under 80 per season) and needs 15 to move into 15^th spot. His goals and points scored are first among active players.

Parsons is 49^th in all-time assists with 620 and is closing in on the 1,000^th career games played mark. He broke into the all-time top 100 recently, ranking 99^th with 963 games played. Both of those marks are second among active players.

Parsons, the team’s player/assistant coach, will serve as captain with Jon Booras and Tomo Hafner serving as assistant captains this season.

Booras is the team's career leader in points (108), goals scored (49), assists (59) and games played (153).

      Of the 28 goals the PrairieThunder has scored this season, the duo of Parsons and Booras has been involved by either scoring a goal or getting an assist 13 times