The International Hockey League trading deadline is 3 p.m. Friday, but neither coach Al Sims nor general manager David Franke expects much to happen involving the Komets.

“Nobody will trade with us,” Sims said after Sunday's game. “Who's going to help the Fort Wayne Komets in this league? Everybody helps Port Huron, but they won't help the Komets.”

The Komets will get forwards Konstantin Shafranov and David Hukalo back in the lineup for tonight's game, but that's likely the only move to be made. The IHL changed its rules over the summer on signing amateur players, so any signing counts against the salary cap and roster limit.

“We'll go with what we've got,” Franke said. “I think we've got a good team, and I don't think some young kid is going to come in and make a big difference right now.”

Over the next 40 days, the Komets will play the final 20 games on their regular-season schedule. They'll play 12 of those games at Memorial Coliseum, starting with tonight's game against Bloomington, which starts a week of three games in four nights against the other three IHL teams that currently hold playoff position. First-place Muskegon comes to town Friday and second-place Port Huron on Saturday.

In those remaining 20 games, the Komets play only two times on the road against teams with playoff position. Their goal for the second half has been to be playing as well as possible heading into the playoffs, and this schedule should definitely help.

Though their main objective will be catching Port Huron for second place, the Komets have a chance to catch Muskegon for first but will need a lot of help. Even if the Lumberjacks stumbled worse than they have all season and went 9-9 in their remaining 18 games, the Komets would need to go 15-5 to beat them. Fort Wayne likely needs to go 17-3 or 18-2 to have a chance.

Last year the Komets went 17-1-1 down the stretch, and in 2007-08 they were 21-0-2.

The Komets were on a 20-5-2 tear before losing both games to Flint last weekend.

The Komets need five wins to win at least 40 games for the 10th time in the last 11 seasons, and they could lose fewer than 30 games for the 11th year in a row. They could also earn 90 points for the eighth season in a row. They have a chance to win 50 games for the fifth time in the last seven years. That would mean they'd reach 100 points for the fourth year in a row.

Flint had managed to win back-to-back games only four times all season before sweeping last weekend's games against the Komets ... Nick Boucher is 5-5-1 at home this season but 9-4-0 on the road. Tim Haun is 13-2-1 at home and 8-8-1 on the road ... The Komets are second to Bloomington this year in taking minor penalties ... The Komets are averaging 3.0 goals per game on the road while giving up just 2.47. They are scoring 3.46 at home while giving up 2.39 ... P.C. Drouin, Guy Dupuis and Lincoln Kaleigh Schrock are the only Komets to play in every game so far this season.