Komets take two from Indy

Fort Wayne, IN –After taking two of three games over the Indy Fuel this past weekend at home, the Komets sit on top the Western Conference standings with a record of 12-5-2-1 and a winning percentage of .675. The team will finish out the month of March on Wednesday with a trip to Indianapolis before returning to the Allen County War Memorial Coliseum for a Friday night tilt with the Jacksonville Icemen and Saturday night versus the Wheeling Nailers. 

Last week’s results 

Fri 3/26 vs Indy FW 5 – IND 0 W

Sat 3/27 vs Indy FW 3 – IND 2 OTW

Sun 3/28 vs Indy FW 2 – IND 3 L

About last week: Friday, the Komets returned home to host the Indy Fuel. It was Indy’s first visit to the Coliseum since February 22, 2020.  The Komets would get two goals from Zach Pochiro, and another from captain AJ Jenks to give the Komets a 3-0 lead at the end of one period.  Brandon Hawkins would score two power play goals in the second period to help the Komets to the 5-0 win.  Both Jenks and Hawkins finished the games with three points. The two teams combined for 75 penalty minutes with Indy going 0-7 on the power play. Goaltender Dylan Ferguson would earn a shutout win, making 22 saves. 

Saturday night, the Komets shutout streak would reach 119:14 until Indy’s Willie Raskob scored at 19:45 of the second period on a power play giving Indy their first lead of the weekend.  AJ Jenks would tie the game with a power play goal at 1:13 of the third period.  Marco Roy would give the Komets the lead at 4:48, but the Komets were unable to hang on as Indy scored at 18:34 to send the game to overtime.  In the extra frame, the Komets only allowed one shot on net before Marco Roy would get his second of the game at 6:38 of overtime giving the Komets the win.  The Komets held Indy to 1-8 on the power play as Dylan Ferguson made 24 saves for his second straight win.

The series concluded Sunday with at 3-2 Komets loss, the first on Coliseum ice this season.  Justin Vaive and AJ Jenks would net goals, while Shawn Szydlowski, Olivier Galipeau, Brandon Hawkins and Randy Gazzola would put up assists.  Rookie Louis-Phillip Guindon would take the loss in goal, giving up three goals while making 24 saves.  

For the week— Both AJ Jenks (3g 2a) and Brandon Hawkins (2g 3a) would collect five points each.  Marco Roy would get his first two tallies of the season, partnered with two assists for a four-point week. Randy Gazzola added four assists to his season total.  Shawn Szydlowski was credited with three assists; Zach Pochiro would also have a three-point week (2g 1a).  Justin Vaive scored one goal, while Anthony Petruzzelli, Nick Boka, Blake Siebenaler and Olivier Galipeau would each register an assist.  Goaltender Dylan Ferguson received two starts, making 46 saves on his way to two victories, giving up two goals and being credited with the Komets second shutout of the season.  Louis-Phillip Guindon would take the loss in his only start giving up three goals on 27 shots.

Special K's—The Komets gave up a total of 20 power plays to Indy last weekend, successfully killing off 18. Conversely, the Komets would be handed 15 power play opportunities and would score on six of them.  The team is 11 of 37 over the last 10 games on the power play, giving the team an overall percentage of 27.4, tops in the ECHL.

Komet streaks— Brandon Hawkins has points in five straight games and seven straight home games. Shawn Szydlowski has a six-game home assist streak. Randy Gazzola has assists in four straight games and five straight home games.  AJ Jenks has points in the last three games. 

Komet leaders— Anthony Petruzzelli, Matt Boudens, Justin Vaive, Olivier Galipeau and Blake Siebenaler have appeared in all 20 games this season.  Brandon Hawkins leads the team with 17 points (9g, 8a).  Randy Gazzola has the team lead with 14 assists.  Zach Pochiro has 11 goals and leads the team with a +11 rating.  Morgan Adams-Moisan leads the team with 38 penalty minutes.  Stefanos Lekkas has six wins and Dylan Ferguson has a GAA of 0.95. 

Icing the puck—The Komets shutout streak of 119:14 was the longest such team stretch of the season.  Louis-Phillip Guindon has the longest shutout streak by a goaltender 131:42 set between 2/21-3/6. Dylan Ferguson’s win Friday night was the first home shutout for the Komets since Cole Kehler blanked Wheeling on Thanksgiving in 2019. Over the first 10 games, the Komets killed off 90.5 percent of their penalties, but have seen that percentage drop to 74.5 percent over the last 10 games.  The Komets amassed 43 penalty minutes Saturday night, that was the most in any one game this season.  With wins Friday and Saturday, the Komets are now 31-10-4 against the Fuel over the last five seasons.  The Komets enter the week the top defensive team in the league giving up just 2.35 goals per game and allowing only 23.60 shots per game.

This week, the Komets will head to Indy on Wednesday before returning home to play Jacksonville on Friday and Wheeling on Saturday.