Komets rally, win game one 4-3

Fort Wayne, IN-- The Komets rallied from a 3-1 deficit to stun the visiting Quad City Mallards 4-3 and take game one of the Central Division semifinals Friday night at the Memorial Coliseum.

After spotting the Mallards with a pair of goals, Komet forward Mike Cazzola finally solved goaltender C.J. Motte with 17 seconds remaining in the first frame to send the game into the first intermission with Quad City holding a 2-1 advantage.

The Mallards opened the second period with Michael Parks scoring at 2:35 for a 3-1 Mallard lead. Travis Ewanyk pulled the Komets within one at 13:22 before Shawn Szydlowski scored the equalizer two minutes, three seconds later at 15:25.

Only one marker was needed in the third stanza and that went to Garrett Desjardins when the forward banked a shot off Motte's pad and into the net for the eventual game winner.

Fort Wayne goaltender Pat Nalge earned the win making 10 saves on 13 shots while Motte suffered the loss allowing four goals on 37 shots.

The Komets were 1/6 on the power play, Quad City was 0/2 with the man advantage.

The Fort Wayne victory sets up game two for Saturday night at the Coliseum with the Komets leading the series 1-0. The series switches to Quad City for games 3, 4 and if necessary, game 5 next week.

2017 ECHL KELLY CUP CENTRAL DIVISION SEMIFINALSFORT WAYNE KOMETS VS QUAD CITY MALLARDSFort Wayne leads best-of-seven series 1-0Game 1- Friday, April 14...............Quad City 3 at Fort Wayne 4Game 2- Saturday, April 15...........Quad City at Fort Wayne, 7:30pm ETGame 3- Wednesday, April 19......Fort Wayne at Quad City, 7:35pm ETGame 4- Friday, April 21...............Fort Wayne at Quad City, 8:05pm ETGame 5- Saturday, April 22...........Fort Wayne at Quad City, 8:05pm ET*Game 6- Monday, April 24............Quad City at Fort Wayne, 7:30pm ET*Game 7- Wednesday, April 26......Quad City at Fort Wayne, 7:30pm ET**If necessary.

Kids Seat Free Saturday-- Saturday is Kids Seat Free Night for Game 2 of the playoffs, courtesy Aunt Millie's, Parkview Health and the Komets. Any child under the age of 12 can see the game for free with a full-priced adult ticket purchase.Get Tickets-- Tickets for the first Saturday night's Fort Wayne home playoff game are on sale at the Coliseum Ticket Office and at TicketMaster.com. Also, Season Tickets with Early Bird Pricing are now available. 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.