FORT WAYNE, Ind. – On Saturday, the Fort Wayne Komets suffered their first loss of the season, falling 9-2 to the Kalamazoo Wings at the Allen County War Memorial Coliseum.
Komets forward Alex Swetlikoff started the scoring with a goal at 5:13 of the first period, but the Wings answered back with a vengeance, scoring six unanswered goals. Max Humitz scored on a rebound shot to tie it. Jay Keranen took the initial shot, but Ben Berard deflected that shot straight to Humitz. Giving Kalamazoo the lead was Zach Okabe at 9:01 in the first period. At 12:51 left in the first, Jermaine Loewen found the back of the net on a wrister, making it 3-1.
Adding Kalamazoo’s first power-play goal of the season, Berard would score with 20.9 seconds left in the opening period to push the lead to 4-1. The Wings would add two more power-play goals in the second period to increase their lead to 6-1. At 5:44 left in the power-play, Humitz cleaned up yet another rebound shot to reach the back of the net. This rebound would come off of an initial shot from Zach Berzolla. Okabe would score his second goal of the game at the 8:06 mark of the second period. The Komets’ starting goaltender, Connor Ungar, was relieved at 28:06 minutes into the game, with Brett Brochu taking over in the crease.
The Komets would add a power-play goal on an Odeen Tufto shot at the 5:00 mark of the third period, cutting the deficit to 6-2. The Wings would answer right back 18 seconds later on a shot from Loewen, making it his second goal of the night. They would also add two more power-play goals: one at the 11:22 mark in the third after Berard fired a wrist shot off a backhanded pass from Lee Lapid and one from Theo Calvas at the 16:49 mark. Ryan Cox and Ayden McDonald assisted on Kalamazoo’s ninth goal. The Wings went 4-for-6 on the power play and 2-for-3 on the penalty kill, while Fort Wayne took the shot total, 39-35.
Check out this photo gallery from Inside The Rink’s Austin Rodriguez for highlights from this contest.
