St. Pierre likes team's defensive core

By Justin A. Cohn
The Journal Gazette

The Fort Wayne Komets went in search of an experienced and successful
goaltender to backstop the team in its defense of the Colonial Cup
next season.

Enter Kevin St. Pierre, a veteran of eight professional seasons who
was named the West Coast Hockey League's MVP last season.

"We wanted to go in the direction of getting an established
goaltender, and I think Kevin St. Pierre fits that mold perfectly,"
said Komets general manager David Franke, who completed the signing
of St. Pierre on Monday morning.

The Komets also re-signed center Adam Lewis, a pivotal part of last
season's playoff run.

St. Pierre, 28, was 36-12-7 with a 2.14 goals-against average and
a .929 save percentage last season with the Bakersfield Condors. He
is 6-foot-3, 220 pounds.

"He's a big goalie, similar to Tommy Lawson (of last season's Komets
team), but maybe not quite as tall," Franke said. "He covers a lot of
net and played 56 games last year. I think we've got ourselves one of
the top goalies in hockey at this level."

St. Pierre was selected the top goaltender in the Western
Professional Hockey League during the 1997-98 season, leading the
Shreveport Mudbugs to the regular-season title. He has played two UHL
seasons, with the Port Huron Border Cats from 2000-02, and he owns
the UHL record for longest shutout streak at 248 minutes, 31 seconds.

He not intimidated by the prospect of joining a Cup-defending team
and replacing a popular goalie, Lawson, who has been signed by the
NHL's Colorado Avalanche.

"I know it's going to be a little bit more pressure on me at the
beginning of the year," St. Pierre said. "But I had a pretty good
season myself last year. I just want to go out there and give the
team a chance to win every night."

And St. Pierre is pleased to be joining a Komets team that had the
UHL's top defense last season.

"Yeah, it's something I'm not really used to," he said. "If you look
at my past, pretty much I got a lot of shots. But last year, I played
for a pretty good defensive core also. But I know some nights I'll
have to come up big and other nights the defense will come through
for me."

St. Pierre signed a one-year contract with the Komets, but he can
earn a second year by hitting some undisclosed performance levels,
Franke said.

Lewis, 25, is the 11th player from last season's Fort Wayne team to
re-sign with the Komets and the 13th player overall to join the
roster. The hard-working Lewis is one of the speedier Fort Wayne
players and a reliable faceoff and special-teams player.

He tallied five goals and 14 points in 67 regular-season games, then
surged with three goals and six points in 12 playoff games.

"He's got a solid work ethic," Franke said. "He can play forward or
he can play center. He's one of our top penalty-killers, and Adam
Lewis comes hard to play every night."

Lewis had surgery on both wrists this summer, and the Komets wanted
to make sure he would be healthy before signing him to a one-year
deal.

"Everything seems to be OK," Franke said. "The doctor is pleased with
his recovery. He's ahead of schedule, and we expect him to be ready
by training camp. A lot of people don't realize he played hurt all
year."

While the financial aspects of St. Pierre's and Lewis' contracts
weren't disclosed, Franke admitted the Komets don't have a lot of
salary cap room left to spend on players for next season, even though
league rules allow them to dress one more veteran with 280 games or
more experience.

"I don't know if there's going to be another big-hitter type of a
player because of the salary cap, but we still have some room under
the cap," Franke said. "We may not even go into the start of the
season with six veterans. We may stay at five and see what happens."

That means someone like left wing David-Alexandre Beauregard, one of
the Komets' highest-paid players last season, probably won't be re-
signed.

"We still might do something with him, but right now he's not in our
plans," Franke said. "And we are talking with some teams to see if
maybe we can trade his rights."

Another player now unlikely to return is goalie Cory Campbell, who
showed promise as the backup to Lawson last season.

"I don't think Cory wants to come back as a backup," Franke said.