After shutting out Indy on opening night, the Komets strolled into Wings Events Center in Kalamazoo on Saturday and left with a thrilling 6-5 win.
In the first period, the Komets started the scoring when Matt Brown went top shelf off the backhand to beat Kalamazoo's goaltender Hunter Vorva at 5:29. Defenseman Jalen Smereck quickly followed that up with a strike at 6:23, with the lone assist going to Brown. Late in the period with the Komets on the power play, Kalamazoo's Colin Bilek grabbed a loose puck on the left wing and walked into the Komets' zone uncontested to beat goaltender Samuel Jonsson to make the game 2-1 after the first twenty minutes.
Kirill Tyutyayev opened the scoring in the second period with his second goal of the season at 2:52 with assists from Alex Alerardi and Blake Murray, with a follow-up goal by Brown at 9:28 to give the Komets a 4-1 lead after two periods.
In a crazy third period, Kalamazoo's Ryan Cox cut the Komet lead down to two with a strike at 2:38, and the Wings added another at 8:21 to make it a one-goal game. While skating short-handed, Trevor Janicke scored to push the Komet lead back up to two. Still, the Wings rallied with two more goals from Bilek at 16:58 and with the goaltender pulled for the extra skater to complete a hat trick at 18:56. With the prospect of overtime on the horizon, the Komets crashed the net in the final seconds as Austin Magera scored the game-winning goal at 19:53.
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