Fort Wayne, IN-- The Komets battled the Allen Americans into overtime Sunday at the Memorial Coliseum in Fort Wayne. However, the Americans prevailed with an early goal in the extra frame to snatch a 3-2 victory and take 2-0 lead in the best-of-seven ECHL Western Conference finals series.
Allen opened the scoring at 8:50 of the first period for the only marker of the session which also saw 13 penalties whistled for a total of 54 penalty minutes.
Garrett Meurs netted his first pro playoff goal at 22 seconds into the second frame to pull the Komets even at 1-1. Troy Bourke put the Komets up 2-1 with a tally at 8:41, his eighth of the playoffs. Before the period could end, the Americans pulled even at 2-2 with 30 seconds remaining.
After a scoreless third period, the game slid into overtime and was suddenly ended when Gary Steffes deflected a shot into the Fort Wayne net at :56 to give the Americans the win.
Komet netminder Pat Nagle suffered the loss stopping 20 of 23 shots. The Americans started with Riley Gill in net. Gill allowed one goal on nine shots before leaving the game at 4:02 of the second period. Joel Rumpel entered in relief, making 15 saves on 16 shots for the win.
The series moves to Allen for game 3 Thursday. Game 4 will be played Saturday, May 21 and if necessary, game 5 will faceoff at Allen Sunday, May 22.
If games 6 and 7 are needed, they will be skated in Fort Wayne Tuesday, May 12 and Thursday, May 26.
2016 ECHL KELLY CUP WESTERN CONFERENCE FINALSFORT WAYNE KOMETS VS ALLEN AMERICANSAllen leads best-of-seven series 2-0Game 1- Friday, May 13....................Allen 5 at Fort Wayne 3Game 2- Sunday, May 15................. Allen 3 at Fort Wayne 2, OTGame 3- Thursday, May 19...............Fort Wayne at Allen, 8:05pm ETGame 4- Saturday, May 21............... Fort Wayne at Allen, 8:05pm ETGame 5- Sunday, May 22................. Fort Wayne at Allen, 5:05pm ET*Game 6- Tuesday, May 24................Allen at Fort Wayne, 7:30pm ET *Game 7- Thursday, May 26...............Allen at Fort Wayne, 7:30pm ET**If necessary.
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.
Season tickets-- Season Tickets for 2016-17 are on sale at the Komet office at 1010 Memorial Way in Fort Wayne. For information visit www.komets.com or call 260-483-0011.
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