Mavericks Double Up Komets, 6-3; Missouri Takes 2-0 Lead in Conference Finals

Andrew Courtney scored two goals and Charlie Effinger made 39 saves as the Missouri Mavericks defeated the Fort Wayne Komets, 6-3, Saturday night at Memorial Coliseum.  Missouri now leads the Turner Conference Finals two games to none.  Courtney finished with three points on two goals and one assist, and Mavericks’ forward Ed McGrane also had a three-point game with a goal and two assists.  The teams will now head to Missouri for games three, four and five (if necessary) at Independence Events Center on Wednesday, April 18, Thursday, April 19 and Saturday, April 21.  Tickets are available via Ticketmaster or at the Independence Events Center Box Office.
“We played pretty well in the first and third periods,” said Mavericks’ head coach Scott Hillman.  “They are playing good hockey and did their damage in the third, but we have to continue to make adjustments.  We want to bring it home, take it one period at a time and take care of business.”
The Mavericks jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first period.  First, at the 5:20 mark, Mavericks’ forward John-Scott Dickson scored his fourth goal of the playoffs on a centering feed from Sebastien Thinel.  The Mavericks made it 2-0 when Courtney scored the first of his two goals at the 11:52 mark.  Kris Hogg came streaking into the Komets’ zone along the left wing and ripped a shot wide, but Courtney picked up the puck along the boards outside the right circle and snapped it home.  Komets’ netminder Nick Boucher was pulled in favor of former Maverick Gerry Festa after the second goal.
Jamie Lovell tallied the Komets’ first goal of the game at the 13:06 mark of the second period on a blast from inside the left circle, but the Mavericks regained the two-goal lead at the 17:02 mark.  Forward Patrick Schafer notched his second goal of the post-season when he lifted a wrist shot over the shoulder of Festa giving the Mavericks a 3-1 lead.  Fort Wayne controlled most of the play in the second period and had a 35-12 edge in shots through the first two periods, but it was the Mavericks with the lead as the teams headed to the third period.
Just 46 seconds into the third period, Courtney gave the Mavericks a 4-1 lead on a rebound off a shot by Ryan Jardine, but the Komets did not go quietly.  Bobby Chaumont score for Fort Wayne on the power play at the 3:53 mark on assists from Jamie Milam and Frankie DeAngelis.  It marked the first power play goal against the Mavericks in the playoffs.  Chris Auger made it a one-goal game when he banged in a rebound at the 4:58 mark of the third period, but that would be as close as Fort Wayne would get.
The Mavericks defense clamped down in the final fifteen minutes of regulation and Brandon Smith all but ended the game when he scored an unassisted goal at the 17:58 mark.  Smith beat the Komets’ defense to a loose puck in the Fort Wayne zone and wristed a shot past Festa to give Missouri a 5-3 lead.  McGrane added an empty net goal on the power play with 38 seconds remaining to finalize the scoring at 6-3.
“We need to do a lot of things differently to continue to win hockey games,” added Hillman.  “I still don’t think we have recovered from the time off.  It will be nice to get a practice in now that we have the game conditioning and continue to make adjustments.”