Komets to face Cyclones in first round

Fort Wayne, IN-- The Komets will host the Cincinnati Cyclones in round 1 of the 2016 ECHL Kelly Cup Western Conference quarterfinals. The best-of-seven series starts Friday at the Memorial Coliseum at 8pm and will follow a 2-3-2 format. Game 2 is slated for Saturday in Fort Wayne at 7:30pm. Then the series switches to Cincinnati for games 3, 4, and 5 if necessary. If needed, games 6 and 7 will be played in Fort Wayne April 25 and 27.2016 ECHL KELLY CUP WESTERN CONFERENCE QUARTER-FINALSFORT WAYNE KOMETS VS CINCINNATI CYCLONESBest-of-seven seriesGame 1- Friday, April 15..................Cincinnati at Fort Wayne, 8pm ETGame 2- Saturday, April 16.............Cincinnati at Fort Wayne, 7:30pm ETGame 3- Wednesday, April 20........Fort Wayne at Cincinnati, 7:35pm ETGame 4- Friday, April 22..................Fort Wayne at Cincinnati, 7:35pm ETGame 5- Saturday, April 23.............Fort Wayne at Cincinnati, 7:35pm ET *Game 6- Monday, April 25..............Cincinnati at Fort Wayne, 7:30pm ET *Game 7- Wednesday, April 27.......Cincinnati at Fort Wayne, 7:30pm ET **If necessary.

The Komets were an even 5-5-0 in 10 meetings with the Cyclones during the regular season after a 5-3 victory in their last meeting March 29 at Cincinnati. Only three games were skated in Fort Wayne where the Komets were 1-2-0 while seven were played at Cincinnati (4-3-0). The Komets finished the season winning the Midwest Division with a 40-23-9 record and 89 points. Cincinnati finished with a 36-27-9 record and 81 points. The Komets finished with a 5-3-1 record over their last 10 games of the campaign while the Cyclones were 3-5-2 in their last 10.The Komets will be starting their 101st post-season series Friday and have tangled with a Cincinnati team in the playoffs on only three previous occasions in the 64-year history of the team in Fort Wayne. Overall, the Komets are 7-9 after 16 playoff games against Cincinnati. The Komets were eliminated 4-2 in their last playoff series against the Cyclones in 2014. The Komets eliminated the Cyclones 4-2 in the 1994 IHL semifinals. Fort Wayne was eliminated by the Cincinnati Mohawks 3-1 in the 1956 IHL semifinals. Since missing the playoffs in their first ECHL season (2012-13), the Komets have qualified for the Kelly Cup playoffs the past three years and have had four ECHL series and 23 games (13-8-2). Fort Wayne has not lost a home ECHL playoff game in regulation in 11 games (9-0-2) and is 4-8-0 after 12 road playoff games.

The Komets announced their playoff roster Tuesday. The roster consists of 23 players including 19 active, two reserve and two listed as playoff eligible. View the Fort Wayne playoff roster here.

Komet players marking their first pro playoffs are Troy Bourke, Gabriel Beaupre, Trevor Cheek, Cody Corbett, Taylor Crunk, Randy Cure, David Friedmann, Justin Hamonic, Spencer Martin and Kyle Thomas and Mason Geertsen.

Jamie Schaafsma, Pat Nagle and Alex Belzile have all won ECHL championships. Schaafsma was on board with Allen for last year's ECHL crown. Nagle collected the Kelly Cup in 2012 with Florida and Belzile won with Alaska in 2014.Belzile and Geertsen are currently with San Antonio in the AHL but are on the Fort Wayne playoff roster and eligible to join the Komets.

Players with prior Fort Wayne post-season experience are Nagle (2015), Paul Crowder (2015), Mike Embach (2014, 2015), Garrett Meurs (2015), Brett Perlini (2015), Cody Sol (2015), Jordon Southorn (2014) and Shawn Szydlowski (2014-2015).Komet Playoff Hockey on the air-- All games are scheduled to be broadcast on WOWO Radio AM 1190 and FM 105.7. Broadcasts can also be heard at Komets.com presented by OmniSource.

Get tickets-- Tickets for the first two Komet home playoff games are on sale at the Coliseum Ticket Office and online at www.ticketmaster.com. Season Tickets for 2016-17 are also on sale at the Komet office at 1010 Memorial Way in Fort Wayne. For information visit www.komets.com or call 260-483-0011.