Komets Pummel Gems 7-4

If the Fort Wayne Komets (46-21-1-3) were looking for a victory to make a statement as they head towards the playoffs, they couldn't have picked a better opponent than the Dayton Gems (25-44-3-1). The Komets played host to the hapless Gems, the IHL's last place team, on Friday night and wound up making it one for the record books. Fort Wayne forward Matt Syroczynski started the scoring at 9:13 of the opening frame. Defenseman Guy Dupuis faked a slap shot at Gems goalie Derek MacIntyre which landed neatly on the stick of the unguarded Syroczynski in the slot instead. Syroczynski then tucked it in the open net for the 1-0 lead. Forward Konstantin Shafranov also picked up an assist. Just under a minute later, Komets forward Leo Thomas spotted forward P.C. Drouin streaking towards the Dayton net and hit him with a pass. Upon reaching the net, Drouin was hauled down from behind by Gems defenseman Todd Spencer, prompting referee Brett Klosowski to award a penalty shot. MacIntyre came several feet out of his net to challenge Drouin as he skated in, but Drouin calmly held onto the puck, skated around MacIntyre, and put a shot into the open right side of the net behind him to stretch the advantage to 2-0. In making the shot, Drouin became the first Fort Wayne player to net a penalty shot goal since Mathieu Curadeau did it on February 2, 2008. Drouin also became the first Komets player to get a penalty shot goal on home ice since he did it on January 18, 2008. Dayton finally got on the scoreboard at 4:22 of the second period when forward Pierce Norton found the net, cutting the deficit to 2-1. Assists went to forward Mike Vaskivuo and the goalie MacIntyre on the play. Shortly thereafter, a scrum at the 5:07 mark resulted in 2-miute roughing calls on Komets forwards Mitch Woods and Justin Chwedoruk and Gems forward Jonathan Ornelas. Dayton defenseman Russell Smith picked up a 4-minute roughing call, giving the Komets a 2-minute power play which they failed to capitalize on, but when Gems defenseman Nathan Oke took a high sticking call at 7:30, the Komets made a point to cash it in. Fort Wayne forward Sean O'Connor was set up by a cross ice pass from Thomas to make the count 3-1. Defenseman Frankie DeAngelis was also credited with an assist. That was extended to 4-1 at 12:38 when Komets forward David Hukalo flipped a pass from near the Komets blue line to Chwedoruk at the Dayton blue line. The puck bounced off Chwedoruk's shoulder and landed on his stick as he skated in on MacIntyre and popped it into the net. But the real fireworks began in the third period. Fort Wayne scored 3 consecutive goals in a record-setting 39 seconds. It all started at 1:11 when DeAngelis ran a give-and-go play with Colin Chaulk, whose slap shot from 40 ft out just behind the left face-off circle hit the twine for a 5-1 lead. An assist also went to Hukalo. At 1:31. Dayton made the mistake of leaving Syroczynski undefended in front of the net again, and he potted one to extend the lead to 6-1. DeAngelis and Chaulk got the assists. Thomas capped the outburst at 1:50 with a rocketing wrist shot from the slot for an impressive 7-1 advantage. The play was assisted by Drouin and defenseman Bobby Phillips. The previous Fort Wayne record for fastest 3 goals scored was 45 seconds set on November 22, 1962 in an 8-6 victory over Sudbury. Furthermore, it was only the third time this season that the Komets had scored 7 or more goals in a game. At 2:26, Gems defenseman Todd Spencer, his head no doubt still spinning from the sudden onslaught, got into a fight with Komets forward Mitch Woods. It was later revealed that Spencer cracked a bone in the confrontation. Clearly, it wasn't going to be Dayton's night, but that's when things finally began to go their way. With the game well in hand, the Komets relaxed, allowing their defense to become porous and the Gems responded with 3 goals of their own, albeit not nearly as close together. At 4:13 Ornelas put the puck past Komets goalie Nick Boucher to cut the deficit to 7-2. An assist went to Vaskivuo. There was another fight at the 11:00 minute mark between Phillips and Dayton forward Corey Courtier in which Phillips apparently suffered what was later labeled "an upper body injury". Then the last-ditch Dayton barrage continued. At 18:12, forward Matt Smyth found the back of the net to make the count 7-3. Forward Tim Hartung and Couturier picked up the assists. Smyth tallied again at 19:43 to cap the scoring at 7-4 with just 17 seconds left in the contest, further raising the ire of the perturbed Boucher, who was understandably upset by his teammates' lack of support. As the horn sounded, Boucher bolted from his net and headed immediately to the locker room. Despite the lax defense at the end of the game, Boucher stopped 25 of 29 shots for the victory. MacIntyre made 34 saves on 41 shots in absorbing the loss.

Notes: Announced attendance was 7747. Fort Wayne was 1 for 3 on the power play; Dayton was 1 for 5. The Komets outshot the Gems 16-6 in the first, 15-10 in the third, and 41-29 overall. Not appearing for Fort Wayne were Brad MacMillan (shoulder) and Tim Haun (concussion). Boucher's emergency back-up was Matt Koenig. The Komets have won 3 games in a row and 4 of the last 5. Conversely, Dayton has lost 3 in a row, 5 of the last 6, and 8 of the last 10. It was the final meeting between the two teams in Fort Wayne, IN. The Komets and Gems were scheduled to play one final game in the 2009-2010 season the following night in Dayton, OH. With the win, Fort Wayne extended their margin of victory in the series to 11-3.