For the third time in five games, the Fort Wayne Komets and Flint Generals needed extra hockey to decide the outcome, and this time the Generals prevailed 3-2 in a shootout.
Rookie goaltender Rob Nolan made 30 saves to improve to 3-0-1 this season against the Komets, who are 8-8-1 on the road this season. Nolan has a .942 save percentage against Fort Wayne this season and a 1.94 goals against average.
The game ends a string of six-games-in-eight nights for the Komets with a 3-2-1 mark. They are off until Friday when Bloomington comes to Memorial Coliseum to start a three-game weekend.
``The guys gave a good effort, especially playing the end of such a busy schedule,'' Komets coach Al Sims said. ``They played pretty hard.''
The Komets led 1-0 after one period on an unassisted goal by Leo Thomas and 2-1 midway through the second on a goal by Konstantin Shafranov. The Generals rallied on goals by John Ronan and John Mori before both teams were held scoreless in the third period and overtime.
It's the first time in four games the Komets did not score a power-play goal. Coming into the contest, they had scored on six of their last 16 chances.
Tim Haun made 27 saves in regulation for the Komets, but Jamie Schaafsma and Pascal Rheaume scored in the shootout, while none of the Komets' shooters were able to beat Nolan. Coming into the game, Haun had the International Hockey League's best save percentage in shootouts after stopping 10 of the 11 shootout contestants against him this season.
``Leo and Shaf made good moves against Nolan in the shootout, but he was better,'' Sims said. ``The whole team played well, and everybody gave the effort. I feel really good about getting a point out of it.''
The Komets were playing without assistant coach and center Colin Chaulk, who did not make it back from Toronto where he was attending a family funeral. Defenseman Brandon Warner did not play because of an illness, and forward Rick Varone sat out because of a knee injury. The Komets could have activated forward Blair Stayzer off injured reserve (concussion), but chose not to leaving Sims with nine forwards and six defensemen.
