The Fort Wayne Komets had largely outplayed the Missouri Mavericks through the first two games of their best-of-7 conference finals series but had nothing to show trailing 2-0 in the series.  Wednesday night in Independence wasn’t a get the golf clubs out game but it was as close to a must win as you could have.

And win they did, in large part due to a huge game from rookie forward Jean-Michel Rizk who netted a pair of goals and paced the team with five shots on net.

A seventh round pick of the Minnesota Wild in 2004, Rizk came through big for the Komets on Wednesday night tying the game at one goal apiece with a strike at the 6:00 mark of the opening period.  His biggest goal of the night and maybe of his professional career came at the 5:19 mark of the third period when he beat Charlie Effinger for what turned out to be the game winning goal in his team’s 3-1 win.

The Dunham, Ontario native has three goals and five assists in nine playoff games so far and had a very consistent regular season scoring 20 goals (31 points) in 55 games.

The Komets have been peppering the Mavericks with 124 shots on goal through two games but had not had much success beating Effinger.  Rizk’s big night might puncture that confidence and at the least had Fort Wayne back in the conversation in the series with Game 4 set for Thursday night at the Independence Events Center.