After losing at first-place Muskegon on Friday night, the Fort Wayne Komets bounced back with five-straight goals to win 5-1 at Dayton on Saturday night. Matt Syroczynski scored twice, Guy Dupuis, Sean O'Connor and Brandon Warner once to provide the offense as goaltender Nick Boucher made 27 saves.
The win gives the Komets 87 points on the season but they were unable to gain ground on Muskegon which won 3-1 at home against Quad City. The Lumberjacks have nine games remaining and lead the Komets by eight points. Fort Wayne has 11 games remaining, including today's 4 p.m. faceoff with Flint which was idle Saturday night.
Muskegon's magic number for clinching first place is 14 points. If the Lumberjacks go 5-4 over their final nine games, the Komets would have to earn 19 of a possible 22 points over their last 11 games to win first place because the Lumberjacks won the tiebreakers.
If the teams end up in a tie, the IHL tiebreakers are overall wins, the second is head-to-head wins and the third is fewest head-to-head regulation losses. The fourth is most goals, the fifth is head-to-head fewest goals against and the sixth is to flip a coin.
The schedule breaks the Komets' way with seven of the 11 remaining games at Memorial Coliseum, while Muskegon plays seven of its last nine games on the road.
