Komets Collect Three Points

Fort Wayne, IN – The Komets finished the regular season series with Cincinnati last weekend with a win and an overtime loss, collecting three points over the two game series.  With 15 games remaining in the regular season, the team sits alone in second place in the Central Division with a record of 31-20-6-1, 69 points, 12 points behind first place Toledo and five points up on third place Wheeling.  The club hosts Kalamazoo Saturday night and the Nailers on Sunday.

Last week’s results

Fri. 3/18 at Cincinnati  FW 6 – CIN 4 W

Sat. 3/19 at Cincinnati FW 3 – CIN 4 OTL

About last week – Friday, the Komets visited the Cyclones in the first of at Cincinnati.  Connor Corcoran would score on a power play and Oliver Cooper would also net a goal to give the Komets an early 2-0 lead after the first period.  The Cyclones would get a power play to open the second period leading to their first goal of the night at :47 to start what would be wild second period.  Veteran Jesse Shultz would tie the game just 1:02 later with an even strength goal.  The Komets would counter quickly when rookie Shawn Boudrias scored his 17th of the season at 2:14. Cincinnati’s Dominic Franco would score at 5:58 to knot the score at three.  Will Graber and Connor Corcoran would find the back of the net late in the period to stake the Komets a two goal lead.  Franco would score his second of the period at 15:27 to pull the Cyclones within one heading into the second intermission.  It would be scoreless third period until Oliver Cooper cemented the win with an empty net goal at 19:13 of the third period.  Sam Harvey would get the win in goal making 31 saves.   

Friday, dropped the regular season series finale with the Cyclones 4-3 in overtime.  Cincinnati would get two first period goals, but the Komets would counter with a power play goal from Kellen Jones and an unassisted shorthanded goal at 19:40 from Anthony Petruzzelli to tie the game.  The two teams would swap goals in the third to send the contest to overtime.  In the extra frame, Lincoln Griffin would end the game at the 2:10 to give the Cyclones a 4-3 win.  All three Komet goals were scored on specialty teams has the Sam Harvey got tagged with loss making 27 saves. 

Komet streaks— The Komets have won five straight at home. Will Graber has points/assists over the last eight home games (4g, 15a), Anthony Petruzzelli has points in three straight games (1g, 2a), Sam Harvey has started seven straight games.

Special K's— For the week, the Komets went 3 of 6 on the power play, while going three of four on the penalty kill.

Komet leaders —

POINTS:  Will Graber  65

GOALS:   Anthony Petruzzelli 21

ASSISTS:  Will Graber 49

PP GOALS: Anthony Petruzzelli  8

Connor Corcoran 8

SH GOALS: Oliver Cooper  4

GW GOALS:  Shawn Boudrias 4

SHOTS:  Connor Corcoran 146

PIM:  Matt Alvaro 84

+/- :  Will Graber 32

Icing the puck — The Komets finished the regular season series with Cincinnati with eight wins in 12 contests. The Komets have 15 shorthanded goals this season the most since ’99-’00 (21).  Seven combined goals in the second period Friday night in Cincinnati was the third time this season the Komets and their opponent combined for seven goals in a single period. Saturday was the second time this season the Komets were only handed two penalty minutes in game. The team is 25-4-1 when scoring four or more goals and 21-0-2 when leading after two periods.  The Komets are 6-1-1 in the month of March.  Will Graber was credited with an assists in seven straight games (3/2-3/18) the longest streak of the season. Graber leads the league in helpers with 49.  The last Komet to hit 50 assists in a season was Shawn Szydlowski during the 2015-’16 season.  The most assists collected in a season since this Komets joined the ECHL was 58 by Brandon Marino in 2013-’14. The Komets will play Wheeling five times in the final 12 games of the regular season.

This week—The Komets travel to Iowa on Wednesday, Indy on Friday, before hosting Kalamazoo on Saturday and Wheeling on Sunday.

Upcoming Promotions

Princess Night, Sunday, March 27th -- Fans (young and old) are encouraged to dress as their favorite princess and participate in an On-Ice Princess Parade during the intermission.  Meet Elsa, Rapunzel and Cinderella before the game from 4:00 p.m.—5:00 p.m. FREE Princess Wands will be handed out before the game. Get Four Upper Arena Tickets for $50 courtesy of Meijer.  Purchase online https://www.fevo.com/edp/Meijer-Family-Night--Fort-Wayne-Komets-vs-Wheeling-Nailers-GUxZbQKs or in person at the Memorial Coliseum Ticket Office.

Komet Hockey on WOWO-- Fans can follow the action with Shane Albahrani broadcasting play-by-play on WOWO AM 1190 and FM 107.5. Game broadcasts are also streamed live at Komets.com.

Get Komet Tickets—Tickets are available for all Komet home games at the Memorial Coliseum ticket office and Ticketmaster.com