Fawcett hat trick drowns Walleye

Fort Wayne, IN-- Forward Tyson Fawcett opened the season with his second pro hat trick , first as a Komet, to propel Fort Wayne over the visiting Toledo Walleye 4-2 Saturday night at the Memorial Coliseum.

A nearly sold-out crowd of 10,089 were on hand as the Komets won their fourth straight home and season opener. Shawn Szydlowski opened the scoring 9:27 into the game before Toledo's Kyle Bonis evened the score with his first marker of the season 49 seconds later. The Komets answered with a pair of tallies, both by Fawcett to take a 3-1 lead into the first intermission.

Bonis scored the only goal of the second period at 13:03 to pull the Walleye within one. Fawcett bagged his hat trick at 13:19 of the third period to finish the scoring and give Fort Wayne their 4-2 home opening win.Goaltender Michael Houser earned the win making 25 saves on 27 shots in his Fort Wayne debut. Toledo net minding duties were shared by Metej Machovsky and former Komet goalie Pat Nagle. Machovsky left the game at 3:22 of the second period after stopping a Fort Wayne breakaway Machovsky allowed three goals on 14 shots before Nagle entered the game and made 15 saves on 16 shots.

The Komets outshot the Walleye 30-27 and were 0/2 on the power play while stopping all four Toledo power plays.

-Gamesheet-

The Komets are off until they host a home double-header Friday Oct. 20 and Saturday Oct. 21 against the Kansas City Mavericks.

Tickets on sale-- Single game tickets for all 36 regular season home games are on sale at the Coliseum Ticket Office and online at ticketmaster.com. Season Tickets also remain on sale at the Komet office at 1010 Memorial Way in Fort Wayne. For more information visit Komets.com or call 260-483-0011