INDEPENDENCE, MO – The Indy Fuel continued their climb toward a coveted ECHL Kelly Cup Playoffs’ berth when they rallied with three unanswered third period goals to eradicate a 2-1 deficit and defeat the Kansas City Mavericks Friday night at the Silverstein Eye Care Center in Independence, Mo, 4-2.
Left wing Darian Dzuirzynski emanated and culminated the victors’ three-goal winning resurgence by triggering a pair of goals; the first one at the 0:35 mark to tie it before delivering an empty net goal at 19:56 of the final frame of the game to cement the Fuel’s latest road winning success. In between, center Ryan Rupert connected on the tie-breaking and ultimate winning goal on an Indy power play at the 10:12 mark.
Center Reed Seckel, the former Maverick, had staked Indy to an early first period 1-0 lead with his second goal in as many games this season against Kansas City. The home-standing Mavs did gain its lone lead of the night on goals from Corey Durocher in the latter stages of the opening stanza before Greg Betzold crashed the crease and gained the lead for his club with a power play goal in the middle period.
Indy outshot Kansas City 33-27 as goaltender Etienne Marcoux posted his 14th victory of the season, outdueling debuting Mavericks netminder Mavric Parks. Both teams’ power plays went 1-for-3.
With his 2-goals, Dziurzynski ran his goal scoring streak to four games, totaling five goals while swelling his point streak to five games. Linemate Josh Shalla’s assist on Dziurzynski first third period strike pushed his personal point streak to six games (3 goals, 5 assists).
Indy’s triumph halted a 10-game losing streak against the Mavericks club, dating back to the club’s inaugural ECHL campaign in 2014-15.
The victory marked the first time this season that Indy had entered the third period trailing and rallied for the win to improve their record to 1-17-0, and the first time this year that the Mavs sustained the setback taking the lead into the final 20-minutes (13-1-0).
With the win, the Fuel (22-23-3, 47 points), have inched within four points of fifth place Kansas City (25-25-1, 51 points) with the Mavs mired in a six game losing streak and the Fuel having three games in hand on them. Moreover, the Fuel have crept within nine points of third and fourth place Cincinnati and Kalamazoo with two games in hand on the Wings and a single game in hand the Cyclones.
The Fuel and the Mavs rekindle hostilities in the second and final game of the series Saturday night.
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