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Eurohockey ei tunnista Jeremy Cornish -nimistä pelaajaa.
IFK sign 'a big boy' in enforcer Cornish
By ADAM H. BEASLEY
Staff Writer
Every team has one. They are the men who skate loudly and not only carry a mammoth stick, but use it to impale someone to the best of their abilities.
Los Angeles has Adam Deadmarsh. Darius Kasparaitis holds court in Pittsburgh.
And if you have any question about Scott Stevens' toughness, just ask the newest man in Manhattan, Eric Lindros.
For better or for worse, they're called goons, and the IFK Helsinki may have picked up a beauty.
The team announced Monday that it came to terms with rookie forward Jeremy Cornish, a 6-foot-4, 220-pound piece of hurting from Canada.
"I guess I'm kind of known as an enforcer," Cornish said. "I like to play tough up and down my wing. I like to play as a power forward …(with the rough stuff) as an extra part of my game."
Cornish's size alone would be enough to put a little fear into the hearts of opposing players, but it's another figure that qualifies him as a big-time basher.
In the 1999-2000 season while playing for the Truro Bearcats (a junior college in Canada), Cornish amassed 312 penalty minutes. In 42 games.
That's almost 7 1/2 penalty minutes a game, which over an 82-game season equates to a staggering 609 PIMs.
"He's a big boy," said IFK's head coach Heikki Malkia. "I look for him to be a player first, and if the other stuff happens, that's great."
As a player, Malkia was pretty familiar with "the other stuff" himself. "He's a real good kid and the kind of hard worker we like."
The signing is IFK's seventh of the season. The team's top remaining needs are a starting goalie and a top-line scorer.
Eurohockey ei tunnista Jeremy Cornish -nimistä pelaajaa.