Al Sims, 60, who guided the Komets to five championships between 1993 and 2012 with a stint coaching the NHL’s San Jose Sharks in between, retired Monday as the winningest coach in the francise’s 61-season history.
In what had been a physical, back-and-forth game all Friday night at the Budweiser Events Center, Jean-Michel Rizk’s pass from behind the net put things out of reach for the Komets.
Early in the third period, he set up Matt Firman for a two-goal lead and what would be the deciding goal in a 6-5 victory over the Colorado Eagles in Loveland, Colo., where the Komets had lost 2-1 on Wednesday night.
After falling behind early on a power-play goal (the Eagles were 4 for 9 on power plays), the Komets got three straight goals in the first period from Eric Giosa, Garrett Klotz and Brett Smith.
The Eagles tied it before Brandon Marino’s shot from the right circle made it 4-3 Komets late in the first.
After the Eagles’ Joey Sides tied it with his second goal of the night, a tic-tac-toe passing play ended with a Ryan Hegarty short-handed goal and a 5-4 Komets lead late in the second period.
By then, there had been two fights – Klotz took on Cody Sol, and Rizk fought A.J. Hau – and that intensity should continue tonight when the teams meet for the third time in four nights.
Charlie Effinger stopped 30 shots for Fort Wayne (26-21-2). Adam Brown had 25 saves for Colorado (23-22-3).
Notes: Former Komets star Leo Thomas, who was suspended by the Southern Professional Hockey League for the season Jan. 29 for punching a fan, was given a nine-game suspension by the CHL for the same incident. After his SPHL suspension, he joined Bloomington of the CHL, which did its own review of the incident.
