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.
FORT WAYNE – Everyone knew there would come a time when a player or two would have to step up and establish themselves as the leader(s) of the Komets, in the wake of center Colin Chaulk’s departure.
Five games into Fort Wayne’s first Central Hockey League season, the time has already come. A 4-0 loss to the Bloomington PrairieThunder, in front of 7,206 fans at Memorial Coliseum on Friday night, left the Komets with a 1-3-1 record.
“It just can’t get any worse,” coach Al Sims said. “We’ve got to at some point get a break.”
Fort Wayne has netted only one even-strength goal and been outscored 14-5 this season. On home ice, the Komets have been outscored 8-0 and been shut out in back-to-back home games for the first time since 2006-07 in the United Hockey League.
“In my 15-year career, these have been the five most frustrating games I’ve been through,” left wing P.C. Drouin said.
Bloomington forward Matt McIlvane opened the scoring 16:55 into the first period, off a rebound during a power play. Defenseman Kerry Toddington made it 2-0 in the second period at the back end of a 4-on-1 rush.
In the third period, Bloomington got goals from forwards Anthony Ciraulo and Jason Deleurme, as Komets goaltender Kevin Reiter stopped 33 of 37 shots.
Bloomington’s Marco Emond made 32 saves.
“The longer is takes for us to score, the more the frustration builds up and the more the confidence goes down the drain,” Drouin said. “You saw what happened there in the third period – we were over-thinking things and tried to force the plays and turned over some easy goals to the other team.”
The Komets have had their chances to score this season – they came into Friday averaging 33.25 shots, sixth best among 18 teams – and Sims has been tinkering with the lines throughout games to try to find the combinations that will break through the slump.
“We’re struggling and squeezing our sticks and struggling to make every play and we’ve got to stay positive,” Sims said. “We’re just shooting ourselves in the foot, whether it’s taking a penalty at a bad time or … not getting many breaks around the net.
“We’re shooting it right into the goalie. It’s tough. The guys are really feeling it, and you can see it, I think, in their game. They’re frustrated and it’s just tough on them right now. We’ve got to get on track at home.”
They will have a chance tonight against the Evansville Icemen, with more than 9,000 fans expected to be at the Coliseum.
