FUEL DEFEAT FORT WAYNE IN OT THRILLER

FORT WAYNE - The Fuel went up to Fort Wayne for a Friday night contest against the Komets. It was a hotly contested game but the Fuel would ultimately walk away as the victors in an overtime thriller 4-3.

1ST PERIOD

The game started fast with two goals in the first five minutes, one by each team.

At 3:54, Ethan De Jong scored a power-play goal for the Komets with the main assist coming from new addition Zack Andrusiak. It didn’t take the Fuel long to respond as less than 30 seconds later Colin Bilek rifled a shot past Tyler Parks for his first goal in his first game back from injury.

The rest of the period remained quiet on the scoreboard despite some exciting chances from both sides.

After the one, the Komets outshot the Fuel 13-10. Only one penalty was committed by Cam Hausinger, getting called for boarding at 2:13.

2ND PERIOD

The Komets kept their same early-period pressure with an early score by the newly acquired Zack Andrusiak at 3:55.

After their early score, the Fort Wayne attack began to slow down. Through two periods, the Komets had 24 shots on goal. The Fuel had 24 shots on goal in the second period alone with one of those shots finding the back of the net unconventionally.

At 15:05, Matt Cairns sent a shot to the net that popped up off the stick of Cam Hausinger about 10 feet in the air over the Fort Wayne goaltender and slowly dribbled past the goal line to tie the score up at 2.

The Komets committed three minor penalties to the Fuel’s one in the second period.

3RD PERIOD AND OVERTIME

It only took seven seconds into the period for Jake Chiasson to score the third goal of the game for the Komets, one of the fastest goals to start a period against the Fuel all season long.

Just after a Komets player was released from the box for hooking, Andrew Bellant scored off a beautiful feed from Bryan Lemos to tie the game up at three goals each.

A late Ryan Gagnier high-sticking minor at 18:17 gave the Fuel a scare before the end of regulation but the game would ultimately go into overtime giving the 7,000 fans in attendance free hockey.

Fort Wayne would have an early chance in a 4 on 3 with the high-sticking carrying into overtime but a great save by Zack Driscoll thwarted Fort Wayne’s effort.

At the 1:54 mark in overtime, Seamus Malone scored the game-winning goal on a wrap-around shot. The Fuel would win the game 4-3 with the final shots favoring Indy 48-37.

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