Ruoff Home Mortgage issued this news release today:DAYTON, Ohio -- The Komets trail the Dayton Gems 1-0 in the opening game of Fort Wayne's 58th season of hockey.
Sam Bloom scored a short-handed 2-on-1 goal at 6:07 of the first period at Hara Arena, sending a shot from the left circle, far-side and above the outstretched glove of Fort Wayne goalie Nick Boucher.
The most interesting part of this game have been the line changes. Both benches are deep within the offensive zones. It makes changes, dump-ins and everything wild. It'll be worse in the second period, when the teams will have to wait until the puck is in the other team's zone to change.
This will be a huge home-ice advantage for the Gems, if they learn to use it this season.
- The game started about 30 minutes late because of pregame ceremonies that included a Mayoral proclamation and the retiring of numbers of Patt Rupp (1), Guy Trottier (16) and Warren Back (17). The Gems' mascot is a white tiger, named Blade. Hmm. Shouldn't it be a giant ring named Ringer or something? A white ball named Pearl? I don't know, a Tiger just seemed strange. But no stranger than an Eagle representing a team with a fireball as a logo.
- There looks to be about 1,200 fans, with about 500 Fort Wayne fans or so.
