Michelle Davies – The Journal Gazette
In the second period of Friday’s game Komets’ Matt Syroczynski tries to get the puck in the goal against the defense of Kalamazoo’s goalie Joel Martin.

Fort Wayne, IN - The Fort Wayne Komets (24-20-2) fell in an abysmal performance at home to the Kalamazoo Wings (20-20-5) 5-1. The Wings came out strong with a four-goal first period.

First Period:

The Komets would like to forget the first period of play. The defense gave up a total of four goals. Starting goalie Marco Cousineau was chased after giving up the third goal of the night 16:50 into the opening frame. The Wings scored the first goal at the 7:15 mark by defenseman Elgin Reid. The second goal when winger Aaron Clarke at the 15:46 mark. Wings defenseman Yann Sauve scored the goal that chased Cousineau. Charlie Effinger came into the game since rookie netminder Kenny Reiter was recalled to Bridgeport of the AHL. Kalamazoo winger Alexandre Grenier closed out the scoring just about two minutes after Effinger came in net. Fort Wayne native Kaleigh Shcrock got tired of the scoring and tried to spark the team by dropping gloves against the visitor’s forward Harry Young with 13 seconds remaining in the opening frame.

Michelle Davies – The Journal Gazette
In the second period of Friday’s game Matt Syroczynski, of the Komets, stretches out to put himself in a position for a shot on goal with Nick Sirota, of the Kalamazoo Wings trying to get in front of him.

Second Period:

The second frame was a little kinder. Effinger left in only one goal to forward John Armstrong. The Komets power play woes continued going 0-for-3 in the frame. Wing goalie Joel Martin was still outstanding in net.

Third Period:

The K’s finally got on the board 9:14 into the closing frame when Thomas Beauregard dangled a shot past Reid and Martin to get the lone Komet tally. After the game, the team had a closed-door, player-only meeting to try and figure out the reason for the poor play not only during the game, but at home in general.

“We’re not worried about getting fired up for starts. We were ready at the start of the game. We just didn’t play our game; there were way too many turnovers in the first period between the blue lines. And we were constantly chasing them into our zone instead of being in the offensive zone. We’ve got to play the same way every night to be successful and we didn’t play that way in the first period.”

- Coach Al Sims after the game

Team Statistics:

SOG:

SHOTS	1	2	3	Total
	10	9	8	27
	8	14	14	36

 Power Play Efficiency

Prd
1st	0-0	0-0
2nd	0-1	0-3
3rd	0-0	0-1
Total	0-1	0-4

Score by Period:

Team	1	2	3	Total
	4	1	0	5
	0	0	1	1

Three Stars:

Star	Team	Pos/Name	Stats
		Goalie Joel Martin	1 GA, 35 SVS
		Forward John Armstrong	1 G, 1 A, +3, 6 Shots
		Left Wing Aaron Clarke	1 G, 1 A, +2, 3 Shots

The Komets will face off against the division leading Cincinnati Cyclones (26-15-5) tonight at 7:30 p.m. EST.

Kalamazoo, MI - 

Kalamazoo defenseman John Negrin kicked off the scoring at the 2:17 mark with his second of the year. Fellow defenseman Sam Ftorek notched a power play goal for his fourth of the season. The K’s got on the board also on a power play goal by defenseman Nick Wheeler. The tally was Wheeler first of the season. K-Wing winger Aaron Clarke netted his 14th of the year also on the man advantage. Komet forward John Dunbar got his second  with less than a minute left.

The Komets tried to get the equalizer late on a power play, but they fell just short. The next event is the All-Star Classic in which Komet defenseman Daniel Maggio will be taking part in the festivities.

The Komets next hit the ice together January 26 at 8:15 p.m. in Evansville. Audio will be available through the Komets website.

Three Stars:

1. KAL - 7 Aaron Clarke
2. KAL - 8 Sam Ftorek
3. KAL - 49 Joel Martin

SOG: