FORT WAYNE, Ind. – It took seven games, but the Fort Wayne Komets are moving on to the ECHL Western Conference Semifinals following a 2-0 win over the Cincinnati Cyclones in front of 5,717 fans at the Allen County War Memorial Coliseum Wednesday night.
The Komets completed the series comeback after falling behind 2-0 following the opening two games on home ice. Fort Wayne left Cincinnati with a pair of wins in three games at U.S. Bank Arena before claiming wins on home ice in games six and seven to punch its ticket to the next round.
Captain Jamie Schaafsma’s two first period goals, both assisted by Paul Crowder and Troy Bourke, would be all the offense the Komets would need. Goaltender Pat Nagle took care of everything else.
Nagle (4-2-0-1) stopped all 33 shots he faced, en route to his second shutout of the series. His Cincinnati counterpart; Brad Thiessen, also stopped 33 shots, but could not find a way to stop Schaafsma.
Schaafsma opened the scoring at 4:26 of the game, collecting a rebound in the slot and putting the puck in the open net with Thiessen out of position.
He struck again less than ten minutes later.
With Thiessen down on the ice trying to cover a loose puck, the puck trickled through his legs and Schaasfma skated in from the side of the net and pushed it across the line.
Nagle took over from there and denied the Cyclones who went on to out-shoot the Komets 24-16 over the course of the final two periods.
The second-seeded Komets now look ahead to a best-of-seven series with the sixth-seeded Utah Grizzlies. Utah defeated the third-seeded Colorado Eagles in six games to claim their spot in the conference semifinal round. The series is set to start in Fort Wayne on Friday night.
In the other Western Conference Semifinal series the Missouri Mavericks will face the defending Kelly Cup Champion Allen Americans. The Reading Royals will take on the Wheeling Nailers and the South Carolina Stingrays will play the Adirondack Thunder in the two Eastern Conference Semifinals.
#3 FORT WAYNE KOMETS VS. #6 UTAH GRIZZLIES SERIES SCHEDULE
Game 1 – Fri Apr 29 8:00 PM Utah at Fort Wayne
Game 2 – Sat Apr 30 7:30 PM Utah at Fort Wayne
Game 3 – Wed May 4 7:00 PM Fort Wayne at Utah
Game 4 – Fri May 6 7:00 PM Fort Wayne at Utah
Game 5 – Sat May 7 7:00 PM * Fort Wayne at Utah
Game 6 – Mon May 9 7:30 PM * Utah at Fort Wayne
Game 7 – Tue May 10 7:30 PM * Utah at Fort Wayne
Contact the writer: John.Hall@prohockeynews.com
You must be logged in to post a comment.