Juris Stals scored twice in regulation and Patrick Levesque spectacularly converted the deciding penalty shot as the host Quad City Mallards, proud International Hockey League (IHL) affiliate of the Philadelphia Flyers, rallied to defeat the Fort Wayne Komets 4-3 in a shootout in the Mallards’ home finale Friday night.
Levesque capped off a night that saw the Mallards battle back from a 3-1 deficit by walking into the goalmouth, slipping the puck between his own skates, kicking it back onto his stick and backhanding it in under the crossbar to snap a 1-1 shootout tie on Quad City’s fifth penalty shot.
Brandon Marino had cashed in the Mallards’ first penalty shot with a wrister only for Fort Wayne’s Guy Dupuis to even the score with a wrist shot of his own in the third round of the shootout.
Overtime and, in turn, the shootout proved necessary after Stals- who had also scored in the first period- charged into the goalmouth to even the game at three at 4:20 of the the third period.
The Mallards’ recovery started when Joel Gasper’s wrist shot from the left wing circle found the top corner and made it 3-2 at 6:33 of the second period.
Early on it seem the Komets might have a much easier night in front of them as Fort Wayne struck for a pair of power play goals to jump out to a 2-0 first period lead. Justin Hodgman pounced on a rebound for the opening goal at 4:30 of the first. At 9:55 Justin Chwedoruk fired the puck in off the post from the top of the right wing circle.
The Mallards would respond with a power play goal of their own at the 12:18 mark of the first. Quad City reduced the margin to 2-1 when Stals buried Justin White’s centering pass.
The momentum shift created by Stals’s first goal lasted a mere 17 seconds until Colin Chaulk scored from the side of the Mallards’ net and reestablished the two goal lead for the Komets.
However, Mallard goaltender Jerad Kaufmann would keep the Komets off the scoreboard for the remainder of regulation and overtime and set the stage for the Quad City comeback.
