Coach Al Sims and captain Colin Chaulk retired, and now so has the goaltender who backstopped them to four championships between 2008 and 2012.OK, it wasn't the best thing I've ever seen at a hockey game. And it wasn't the funniest. That honor goes to Mel Angelstad, who kissed Fort Wayne's Eric Boguniecki instead of fighting him in the 1990s.
However, Jesse Bennefield repeatedly slapping Evansville's Nick Schneider in the third period was pretty darned funny.
"He didn't want to fight so I called him a wuss and he still didn't want to fight," Bennnefield said. "I can't start sucker-punching him, so I thought I would give him a couple slaps, hopefully piss him off. … I had to let him know he doesn't pull nothing in our barn."
The Komets defeated the IceMen 7-4 on Saturday night, sweeping the home-and-home series and giving Fort Wayne a three-point lead in the Turner Conference.
The Komets demonstrated their explosiveness. Bennefield had three assists. Colin Chaulk had two goals and an assist. Stephen Thorne had two goals.
"We've got a lot of speed in our lineup and we're catching teams flat-footed. We just have to continue doing that," said Bennefield, whose Komets are 5-2-0 against the second-year IceMen, including a 5-3 victory on Friday night.
But it was the final minute that the people will probably remember. There were three fights, not including Bennefield's show. After the final horn, Lincoln Kaleigh Schrock dropped the gloves to fight Steve Makway, and it was a classic. (Video coming later.) I should mention that Makway had just declined fighting David Starenky.
As for Chris Auger, coach Al Sims said he does have a concussion, suffered on Karl Linden's elbow, for which he got a major penalty and a game misconduct.
More coming later ...
