Mavericks Fall to Komets, 4-1, Force Decisive Game 7

The Missouri Mavericks fell to the Fort Wayne Komets, 4-1, Tuesday night in Game 6 of the Turner Conference Finals. Fort Wayne forced a game seven with the win and the team’s will play on Thursday night in Fort Wayne for a chance to go to the President’s Cup Finals and face the Wichita Thunder.  Komets’ forward Mike Vaskivuo had a three-point game on a goal and two assists, and four different Komets scored goals. Mavericks’ goaltender Charlie Effinger stopped 43 of 47 shots in his third loss of the post-season.

Jamie Milam gave the Komets a 1-0 lead at the 12:28 mark of the first period on assists from Vaskivuo and Chris Auger. The goal proved to be the only one of the period and Fort Wayne outshot the Mavericks 18-8.

Fort Wayne scored a pair of early goals in the second period to extend their lead to 3-0.  First, Vaskivuo scored on a goal that just trickled over the goal line at the 2:03 mark. Colin Chaulk made it 3-0 when he found a loose puck and buried his shot over Effinger who was already down on the ice after making the initial save. Jamie Lovell assisted and Vaskivuo earned his third point of the game with the second assist. After two periods, Mavericks’ goaltender Effinger had 33 saves on 36 shots and Komets’ netminder Nick Boucher had stopped all 17 of Missouri’s shots.

Fort Wayne extended their lead to 4-0 at the 7:27 mark of the third period when Bobby Chaumont took a pass from Brett Smith and one-timed it into the Mavericks’ net. Missouri scored their only goal of the night at the 13:51 mark on a power play goal by Dale Mahovsky. Earning the assists on the play were Matt McCready and Ed McGrane.

Fort Wayne outshot the Mavericks 47-32.  Missouri finished 1-for-4 on the power play while the Komets were 0-for-2.

The Mavericks and Komets will battle in Game 7 on Thursday night at Memorial Coliseum in Fort Wayne. The winner of Thursday’s game will take on the Wichita Thunder in the Presidents’ Cup Finals.  Tune in live on MissouriMavericks.com or watch live on CHL-TV.