FORT WAYNE, IN — The Maine Mariners fell to the Fort Wayne Komets 5-2 on Saturday night at Allen County War Memorial Coliseum in the first ever meeting between the two teams. Maine got goals from Chase Zieky and Owen Pederson in the losing effort.
Mariners netminder Ryan Bischel was the story of the opening period, stopping all 16 Fort Wayne shots to keep the game scoreless after 20 minutes.
The Komets scored twice in the first half of the middle frame to build a 2-0 lead. Jack Dugan crashed to the back door and finished a feed from Ethan Keppen at 7:29 to opening the scoring, before Brandon McManus followed his own shot and shoveled a backhander past Bischel at 9:10, making it 2-0. Just over a minute later, Maine got on the board. Chase Zieky led a 3-on-2 into the zone, kept it on his stick, and beat Connor Ungar with a wrist shot from the right circle. The Komets went back up by two on Odeen Tufto’s breakaway rebound at 14:49, but that was answered by Owen Pederson on the power play at 16:26, closing the deficit back to one.
The Mariners squandered a 5-on-3 advantage early in the 3rd period, failing to find the equalizer. Komets defenseman Darren Brady netted an insurance goal at 12:49. After missing an empty net attempt in embarrassing fashion, Keppen rolled a long-range attempt in at 19:17 to seal the 5-2 final.
Bischel turned aside 37 of 42 in the losing effort. Ungar earned the win, stopping 24 of 26.
The Mariners (14-18-3-0) return to home ice for a Three Dollar Deweys
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