Komets face rival Walleye in division finals

Fort Wayne, IN-- The Komets will face the 2016-17 ECHL Brabham Cup Champion Toledo Walleye in the Central Division Finals starting with game 1 at the Huntington Center (7,431) in downtown Toledo Friday. Game 2 is slated for Toledo Saturday before the series switches to Fort Wayne for games 3 and 4 as the series follows a 2-2-1-1-1 format.

Fort Wayne advanced to the division finals after eliminating the Quad City Mallards 4-1 in the first round best-of-seven series and is the only ECHL team to have advanced to the second round in each of the last four seasons. Toledo advanced to the second round after eliminating Kalamazoo 4-3.

Toledo will have home ice advantage throughout its participation in the Kelly Cup playoffs due to capturing the regular season league title. It will be the second time the Komets have met the Walleye in an ECHL playoff series and the 12th meeting in a playoff series all-time. The Komets faced the Walleye in ECHL playoff action for the first time in 2015 when Toledo took the series 4-3. Only 106 miles separate Fort Wayne and Toledo according to the ECHL mileage map for the closest rivalry in the league. Twice in their history the Komets and Toledo met in a round robin format, in 1961 and again in 1969 in the old IHL. However the Komets and Toledo have battled a total of 11 playoff series. The Komets are 4-7 against Toledo all-time in playoff series with a 28-30 record over those 58 games.

During the regular season the Komets were 1-3-2 in six meetings, winning the last trip to Toledo 2-1 on April 2.

2017 ECHL KELLY CUP CENTRAL DIVISION FINALSFORT WAYNE KOMETS VS TOLEDO WALLEYEBest-of-seven seriesGame 1- Friday, April 28...........Fort Wayne at Toledo, 7:35pmGame 2- Saturday, April 29......Fort Wayne at Toledo, 7:35pmGame 3- Wednesday, May 3....Toledo at Fort Wayne, 7:30pmGame 4- Friday, May 5..............Toledo at Fort Wayne, 8pmGame 5- Saturday, May 6.........Fort Wayne at Toledo, 7:35pm*Game 6- Monday, May 8...........Toledo at Fort Wayne, 7:30pm*Game 7- Wednesday, May 10..Fort Wayne at Toledo, 7:35pm**If necessary.

Komet playoff leaders-- Shawn Szydlowski leads with seven assists and eight points....Mike Cazzola, Kyle Thomas and Jamie Schaafsma lead with three goals each....Schaafsma leads with three power play tallies....Thomas leads with two game winning goals and 20 shots....Szydlowski leads with four power play assists....Dan Milan leads with +3 and 10 penalty minutes....goaltender Pat Nagle has appeared in all five playoff games and had posted a record of 4-0-1, 2.25 goals-against average and .912 save percentage.

Deuces Wild Wednesday, May 3-- It's deuces wild Wednesday when the second round series switches to Fort Wayne for game 3 at 7:30pm. Upper arena tickets will be sold at 2 for $22 and fans can get $2 beers and $2 sodas all night.

Kids Seat Free Friday, May 5-- Kids seat free for a playoff game! It will be another Kids Seat Free Night Friday, May 5 for game 4 of the Komets/Walleye series, courtesy Aunt Millie's, Parkview Health and the Komets. Any child under the age of 12 can see the playoff game for free with a full-priced adult ticket purchase.

Get Tickets-- Tickets for the first two Komet/Walleye division finals games in Fort Wayne (Fort Wayne home playoff games #3 and #4) are on sale at the Coliseum ticket office and at www.ticketmaster.com. Also, Season Tickets with Early Bird Pricing for the 66th anniversary season are on sale now. For more information visit Komets.com or call 260-483-0011.

Komets on the air-- Fans can follow the Komet playoffs on WOWO AM 1190 and FM 107.5 with Shane Albahrani calling the play-by-play. All Komet radio broadcasts can also be heard worldwide as presented by Omni Source Radio Recycle at www.komets.com.