Komets and Wings change venue, keep script

When the Fort Wayne Komets cruised into Kalamazoo and captured a 2-1 edge on Friday (Oct. 21) night at the Wings Events Center, it seemed it had the upper hand in a home and home weekend set with the Kalamazoo Wings.

But the Wings took a turn as road warriors the following evening capturing a 4-1 win at Memorial Coliseum in Fort Wayne for a split on the weekend.

In other weekend action, the Toledo Walleye took a pair of 6-5 extra time decisions at the Huntington Center in Toledo against the Brampton Beast, going to a shootout on Friday and winning in overtime Saturday. The Quad City Mallards grabbed a 3-2 win at the Rushmore Plaza Civic Center Friday against the host Rapid City Rush and then made it a sweep with a 4-1 edge in Rapid City Saturday.

The Indy Fuel, coming off of a successful opening weekend ran into some tough competition on the road as the Tulsa Oilers downed them 6-1 on Friday at the BOK Center and the following night the Fuel dropped a 2-1 decision to the previously winless Missouri Mavericks at the Silverstein Eye Centers Arena at Independence.

In other action Friday night the Mavs fell to 0-3 falling 4-1 to the Wichita Thunder at the INTRUST Bank Arena in Wichita and on Saturday the Wheeling Nailers paid a visit to US Bank Arena where the Cincinnati Cyclones picked up a 2-1 win.

Friday Games

Komets 2 at Wings 1

Pat Nagle turned in another solid effort between the pipes for the Komets, getting to within 3:42 of a shutout when Charlie Vasaturo scored the lone Wings goal, his first of the season.

Rookie David Friedmann, a 2016 graduate of Robert Morris University, opened the scoring with the lone goal of the opening period for the Komets and the other Komets’ goal came with 7:59 to play, the first of the season for Kyle Thomas.

Nagle made 33 saves to pick up the win and Joel Martin turned aside 26 in goal for the Wings.

Beast 5 at Walleye 6 (so)

Cal Heeter stopped 37 of 42 shots through regulation at overtime for the host Walleye, and then handled two out of three in the shootout, his third stop ending the contest thanks to Walleye shootout goals from Kyle Bonis and A.J. Jenks.

The first period was actually scoreless before teams erupted for 10 in the next two frames.

Brampton scored first, Scott Jacklin notching his first of the season 2:41 into the period and that held up until the 14th minute when the Walleye exploded for three goals in just over four minutes. Tyler Sikura started it with his third of the season and Jenks notched his third just 14 seconds later, the other goal scored by Dane Walters, his first of the season. The Beast struck back with final minute goals by captain Dave Vallorani and Brandon MacLean to knot the game at 3-3 with 20 minutes to go.

Luke Pither gave the Beast its first lead of the contest 62 seconds into the final period but goals by Sikura and Carter Sandlak had the hosts up 5-4 before the six minute mark. David Pacan‘s goal with 48 seconds to play sent this one to overtime and ultimately, a shootout.

Bryan Pitton made 23 saves in goal for the Beast.

Fuel 1 at Oilers 6

Teams were even at 1-1 after a period, both scoring in the opening three minutes. Tyler Currier scored the lone Fuel goal at the 2:14 mark, his second of the season, 64 seconds after Adam Pleskach scored his first of two for the Oilers.

Darcy Murphy scored twice in the first seven minutes of the second and Dan DeSalvo gave his team a 4-1 lead a couple of minutes later. Pleskach and Shawn Bates notched the third period goals for the Oilers.

Jamie Phillips picked up the win with a 21-save effort in goal for the Oilers and Jake Hildebrand turned aside 25 in goal for the Fuel.

Mavericks 1 at Thunder 4

Thunder used home ice to advantage in a meeting of two teams looking to break into the win column.

Darren Nowick opened the scoring for the Mavs 5:33 into the match, but that was the only shot to elude Scott Greenham who turned in a victorious 39-save effort in the contest for the Thunder.

Chris Rumble scored the tying goal late in the opening period and Vincent Arseneau put the Thunder in front to stay 34 seconds into the second period. Jack Rodewald added his second of the season two minutes later and Matt DeBlouw added some insurance in the fourth minute of the third period with his goal.

Eamon McAdam made 29 stops in goal for the Mavericks.

Mallards 3 at Rush 2

Pavel Jenys broke a 2-2 draw with his game winning goal with 8:19 to go as the Mallards hit the win column Friday night in Rapid City.

It was the third time the Mallards moved in front as Jace Coyle opened the scoring with the lone goal of the opening period and Sam Warning‘s goal 11:07 into the middle period opened up a 2-1 cushion for the Mallards. Both of these goals came on powerplays.

Lindsay Sparks‘ second of the season tied the game 1-1 7:08 into the second for the Rush and Hunter Fejes notched his third 32 seconds into the final frame.

Adam Vay made 26 saves to pick up the win in goal and Austin Lotz handled 44 of 47 for the Rush.

Saturday games

Wings 4 at Komets 1

Friedmann notched the lone Komets goal just past the halfway mark of the third period, the only shot of 42 to get by Nic Riopel who turned in a stellar performance in goal for the Wings.

After a scoreless first period the Wings got goals from Justin Taylor, Tyler Biggs and Scott Henegar in the middle frame and Eric Kattelus added a shorthanded empty netter to clinch the victory wit 46 seconds to play.

Eric Hartzel stopped 28 in goal for the Komets, putting up goose eggs in the first and final periods, before leaving in favor of the extra attacker.

Beast 5 at Walleye 6

Tyson Spink fired four goals in this one, including the game winner bringing a sudden end to the contest 28 seconds into the extra session and erasing the excitement on the Brampton side as the Beast rallied back from a 4-2 deficit and held a 5-4 lead at the halfway mark of the final period.

Alden Hirschfeld‘s goal with 3:44 to go lifted the Walleye into a tie and set the stage for Spink, an ECHL rookie how now has seven points in five games after a brief debut last season that saw the 23-year-old contributed four points in five games after graduating from Colgate University.

The other Walleye goal came from Shane Berschbach, his first of the season.

Brandon Marino, Matheiu Gagnon, Pacan, Justin Baker and Yannick Veilleux fired the Beast goals. In goal, Jake Paterson made 27 saves to collect the overtime win for the Walleye and Andrew D’Agostino made 30 saves for the Beast.

Mallards 4 at Rush 1

C.J. Motte stopped all but one of 27 shots to grab another win for the Mallards, Sparks firing his third of the weekend in the opening minute of the final period for the lone Rush tally.

Justin Kovacs fired the lone goal of the first period for the Mallards and added another later with other goals for Alex Petan and Donnie Harris.

Kent Patterson made 23 saves in goal for the Rush.

Nailers 1 at Cyclones 2

The Cyclones played jut once on the weekend and made the most of it, picking up a 2-1 edge against the defending East Conference champion Nailers.

Dominic Zombo scored the winner, just 2:09 from the final buzzer and Craig Dalrymple had the other Cyclones’ marker near the end of the first period.

Garrett Meurs tied it to for the Nailers two mintues into the final frame and that was the only shot out of 40 to elude Michael Houser in the Cyclones’ goal. Doug Carr turned in a 27 save effort in goal for the Nailers.

Fuel 1 at Mavericks 2

After leading the league last season, the Mavs finally broke into the win column Saturday night in a game was scoreless at the end of 40 minutes.

Once again it was Nowick opening the scoring for the Mavericks 4:01 into the third and Aaron Berisha, 21, from Toronto added his first goal as a pro 4:02 later to double the Mavericks’ lead.

Matt Stanisz spoiled the shutout bid for Josh Robinson with just 108 seconds left in the contest. Robinson stopped 31 shots to collect the win and Eric Levine handled 32 of 34 at the opposite end.

Mid-week Action

The 1-1-0-0 Wichita Thunder has entered the fray with a pair of one-game weekends and was scheduled to be back in action Tuesday (Oct. 25) traveling to North Charleston Coliseum for a game against the South Carolina Stingrays, kicking off a four-game road trip to the Southern USA.

On Wednesday night the Missouri Mavericks will make the trip to the iWireless Center in Moline, IL to face the Quad City Mallards and the Rapid City Rush heads to Loveland Colorado and the Budweiser Events Center to play the Colorado Eagles.

The Thunder will continue its road trip on Thursday at the Infinite Energy Arena against he Atlanta Gladiators on Thursday.