Connor Ungar had a second straight solid performance in net. Jack Dugan scored just his second goal in 17 games this season. And Ethan Keppen remained hot with his fifth goal in seven games, as the Komets defeated the league-worst Cincinnati Cyclones 2-1 on Wednesday in Ohio.
Keppen broke open a tied game with a blistering shot from the left circle 7:42 into the second period, after Noah Ganske fed him a pass from the opposite corner. Ungar stopped 22 shots, including a Justin Vaive breakaway early in the second period, as the Komets (11-5-1 with a Central Division-best winning percentage of .676) improved to 3-0-0 against the Cyclones (2-11-3, .219).
This was the only meeting of the season at the Heritage Bank Center, where an announced crowd of 3,090 was on hand. The division rivals will play again at 7:30 p.m. Friday at Memorial Coliseum.
The Komets were without center Odeen Tufto, their leading scorer with six goals and 20 points, who has a lower-body injury.
Ungar, a rookie prospect of the NHLapps Edmonton Oilers, is 4-3-0 with a 3.67 goals-against average and a .873 save percentage.
appAll the boys have believed in (Ungar) since Day 1,app Keppen said. appI think weappve got some good timing coming from him right now. If he can keep it up, weappre going to win some more games.app
Connor Ungar had a second straight solid game in net and Jack Dugan and Ethan Keppen scored for the Fort Wayne Komets in a 2-1 victory over the Cincinnati Cyclones at the Heritage Bank Center on Dec. 4, 2024. Clips from FloHockey/Cyclones/ECHL
There was a silver lining to Tuftoapps absence Wednesday as the Komets had enough salary cap room to use a full 20-player lineup for the first time this season. Forward Michael Gildon, signed Nov. 17, made his Komets debut and they played with seven defensemen, 11 forwards and two goalies.
appI thought our (defensemen) played really well tonight,app Komets coach Jesse Kallechy said. appThey broke pucks out. In the third period, thatapps all they did was break pucks out, go back, break pucks out. I thought that was a really good sign from guys like Ganske, Harrison Rees, (Darren Brady), all seven D. Thatapps all Cincy was doing was dumping pucks and (we) broke it out every time.app
Cyclones goalie Pavel Cajan stopped 15 shots. Their goal came from Ty Voit, who tied it at 1 at 4:10 of the first period by chipping a rebound into the net.
Duganapps goal came on a 40-foot shot 39 seconds into the game, after Jack Gorniak won him a faceoff in the offensive zone.
appI didnappt think it was our appAapp game tonight. I thought it was our appBapp game,app said Kallechy, whose offense was 1½ goals and 12 shots below its season average.
appWe talked about it after two periods that sometimes youappve got to find ways to win when you donappt have your appAapp game. Youappre not going to feel great every night and itapps not always going to be perfect, and we need to find ways to win some of these (types of) games and we did.app
The Cyclones failed to score during three power plays. The Komets were 0 for 2.
Dugan has two goals and 11 assists, after he had 20 goals and a league-leading 60 assists in 70 games last season.
appI thought he was our best player tonight,app Keppen said. appRegardless of him scoring a goal, he did a great job playing a two-way game, finishing hits, playing pucks and making some plays.
appIappm a believer in Jack Dugan. I think heapps our best forward.I think heapps going to get the monkey off his back and heapps going to keep putting them in and making nice plays for us offensively.app
