The Komets humbled the Kansas City Mavericks with an 8-2 victory tonight, improving their record against the Mavericks to 8-1-0 since October 2014.

Known as the Missouri Mavericks before this season, a change of name apparently did nothing to change their fortunes against the Komets, who have outscored their opponents 12-4 in winning the first two games of their 66th season.

And it could have been even better for the Komets; Shawn Szydlowski and Jamie Schaafsma hits posts shooting at an open net in front of 7,140 fans at Memorial Coliseum.

The Komets, who were 3-0-0 last season against the Mavericks, play host to them again 7:30 p.m. Saturday.

Garrett Thompson led the Fort Wayne offense with two goals and an assist. Marc-Olivier Roy had a goal and two assists. Ralph Cuddemi had three assists And Tyson Fawcett, who had a hat trick in the 4-2 season-opening victory over the Toledo Walleye on Saturday, netted another goal.

Mavericks goaltender Tyler Parsons was defenseless much of the night and unable to come out of the game for anything other than an injury because the other goalie, Mason McDonald, was sick. The emergency backup was the Mavericks’ bus driver, 42-year-old Kevin St. Pierre, who was one of the best goalies in Komets history but retired in 2011 and has only played once since.

Michael Houser stopped 19 shots for the Komets, a fine follow-up to his 25-save performance in the opener that earned him the ECHL’s Goaltender of the Week award.

Despite myriad opportunities, Fawcett was the only Komet to get a shot on goal in the first 11 minutes of the game. Thompson scored for Fort Wayne after Cody Sol’s centering pass took a fortuitous bounce off the Mavericks’ Kayle Doetzel and landed on his stick for a 30-foot shot at 11:01.

Parsons had Missouri’s finest play of the night at 14:23, snatching a Dennis Kravchenko shot out of the air after a give-and-go with Thompson, but the relief didn’t last long as Fawcett scored on a breakaway with his team short-handed and Schaafsma netted a wraparound.

Things got raucous on the ensuing faceoff at 16:14 with Sol and Troy Donnay taking part in a frenetic 40-second fight that was followed, 1:33 later, by a Ryan Culkin power-play goal on a shot from the blue-line for a 4-0 lead with Fort Wayne at only eight shots on goal. Donnay received the penalty that set up the goal by removing his helmet and gloves prior to fighting Sol.

(Video of the fight is above.)

After Kansas City’s Jordan Kwas scored off a rebound, Thompson answered at 6:58 of the second period by lifting a 10-foot backhand shot into the top of the net.

Justin Hodgman made it 6-1, netting his first goal for the Komets since the 2010 International Hockey League finals, by leading a 2-on-1 rush, cutting from the left circle to the slot and snapping in a 10-foot shot with a half second remaining in the period.

In the third period, Roy scored from 6 feet out after faking right, left and then right, and Gabriel Desjardins made it 8-1 at 11:02.

Notes: St. Pierre played for the Komets from 2003 to 2007 in the now-defunct United Hockey League. His only game since retiring was in 2016 for the Wichita Thunder as an emergency backup. … Komets forward Taylor Crunk, who was a healthy scratch in the season opener, replaced Mason Baptista in the lineup. … The referee was Jonathan Sitarski.

jcohn@jg.net