Barrage buries Admirals

Sentinel staff writer

The best thing that happened to Bob Mason Friday night was hearing the final horn go off.

The veteran goaltender, who for the most part has been solid all season, had a rather shaky outing. The Fort Wayne Komets took advantage of the situation in coasting to an 8-5 victory at the Bradley Center.

The Komets entered the game with the worst record in the IHL, but they looked like the Pittsburgh Penguins. Fort Wayne's Darin Smith left the building with a hat trick the third goal was into an empty net with one second left in the game.

As a result of Fort Wayne's onslaught, the Admirals and Mason's goals-against average took a beating.

Afterward Mason wasn't about to deliver a filibuster on what went wrong. "I've got nothing to say," said Mason, who politely declined discussing the debacle.

Admirals Coach Phil Wittliff wasn't about to single out anyone for the embarrassing demise.

"Don't blame Bob Mason for this loss," said Wittliff. "Even though we tied it three times we were never in it.

"We were flat the whole game. We just didn't deserve to win. They played like a team trying to get a playoff spot. We played like a team that was content. We didn't play well.

"You can't blame any one person. It was a team effort. We just didn't play well as a team."

Mason, though, had problems pretty much after the opening face-off. The Komets scored on two of their first three shots and led, 3-1, after the first period.

As is often the case, the Admirals staged a rally with four goals in the second period. Pat MacLeod scored 57 seconds into the period, and Brad Werenka followed suit at 5:17 to make it a 3-3 game.

The Komets answered with a pair of goals in a span of 1:32. Steve Bancroft's shot went off Mason and trickled into the net to make it 4-3 at 8:18. Vladimir Tsyplakov then beat Mason for a goal at 9:50 giving the Komets a 5-3 lead.

But this wasn't a night for either goalie as the Admirals surged back by beating Fort Wayne goalie Peter Sidorkiewicz twice in 1:10. Shawn Evans rammed the puck home at 14:04, and Werenka knocked in a rebound at 15:14 to create a 5-5 tie heading into the third period.

There was no third period drama for Milwaukee on this night, however. Rob Doyle buried a long blast into the net with 10:43 left to make it 6-5, and Smith swatted in a rebound with 8:41 to go giving the Komets a 7-5 cushion.

"We really didn't have too many chances to score in the third period," said Wittliff. "They just beat us."

The Admirals were a pretty disgusted bunch as they reflected on the evening of hockey.

"You can't keep falling behind by two goals and expect to fight back," said Werenka. "It's happened all year and you can't keep doing that.

"Most of the time we've been lucky and able to fight back, but you can't do it every night. You can't get away with it and tonight we didn't."

The fact that the lowly Komets swept the two- game season series with Milwaukee made the loss even more bitter to swallow.

"We fully expected to come out of here with two points," said Admiral center Mike McNeill. "That didn't happen.

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