Gems Fall To First Place Komets 3-1 Saturday Night In Fort Wayne

Box Score | Game Live

Fort Wayne, Indiana – The Dayton Gems would fight their way to an early lead but would be unable to stop the Fort Wayne Komets from mounting a come from behind victory on the heals of a red hot goaltender, falling 3-1 on Saturday night. Scoring for the Gems was Charlie Townsend.

Despite the nearly month interval from their last meeting, the Gems and Komets got right down to business to start the game with a round of fisticuffs between Dayton toughguy Robin Richards and Fort Wayne's Brent Henley just :02 in. Even after play resumed, physicality continued to be high on both ends of the ice. Dayton would find their way onto the scoresheet first, with Charlie Townsend scooping up a centering pass through neutral ice to rush in for a breakaway goal at the 7:52 mark to claim the 1-0 lead. Townsend's goal, his seventh of the season, was assisted by Nick Fanto and Chad Langlais. Fort Wayne would return the favor however, taking advantage of a scramble in front of Gems starting netminder Larry Sterling for Bobby Chaumont to snipe in a snapshot past Sterling at 13:29 to tie the game 1-1 through the horn. Shots on goal after twenty minutes favored the Komets 14-11.

Both teams would battle though the second period, with the Komets generating their first lead of the night off a breakaway goal of their own just past the midway mark of the game at 10:45. Dayton would look to push towards a tying goal in the second half of the stanza, but would be stonewalled by Komets netminder Nick Boucher to skate into the second intermission trailing Fort Wayne 2-1 through forty minutes.

The Komets again held the edge in shots on goal in the second period 16-9.

The Komets would take control of the third period, and would add to their lead just 4:23 into the stanza, in what would be their final goal of the night to make it a 3-1 lead headed into the final minutes of regulation. Dayton would generate chances in front of Boucher, but wouldn't be able to muster any lamplighters through sixty minutes of hockey, falling to the Komets at the final horn 3-1. Shots in the third period would actually favor the Gems 14-12 for a game total of 43-34 in Fort Wayne's favor.

With the loss, the Gems record falls to15-20-8 and 2-6-1 this season against the Komets.