Despite a late press by the Indy Fuel, the Komets got a 5-1 victory Friday night and improved to 6-0-0 in the season series between the teams.

Gabriel Desjardins had a goal and two assists for the Komets (31-15-7), who are on a 9-1-3 run heading into tonight’s game at Memorial Coliseum against the Wichita Thunder.

After the Komets racked up 20 of the first 24 shots, the Fuel closed with a 15-8 advantage in third-period shots. But goaltender Garrett Bartus finished the game with 27 saves, and Colin Mulvey had the only goal of the final period for the Komets.

Even though Josh Shalla opened the scoring for the Fuel 7:10 into the first period, the Komets got goals from Jason Binkley, Trevor Cheek and Garrett Thompson before Desjardins made it 4-1 with an unassisted goal 16:45 into the second period at Indiana Farmers Coliseum, where a crowd of 4,406 was on hand.

The Komets played their first game since Mike Cazzola was called up to Binghamton of the American Hockey League.

Also in the AHL were Kyle Thomas with Cleveland and Bobby Shea with Rochester, while Komets captain Jamie Schaafsma remained out with a finger injury. The Komets also played without Gabriel Beaupre (concussion) and Kyle Flemington.

Jake Hildebrand had 42 saves for the Fuel (15-34-4), which has lost 10 of its last 11 games and is in the Western Conference cellar. The Fuel were coming off a 6-2 victory over Tulsa on Feb. 18.

The Komets scored on their only power play – Cheek had the goal, part of his two-point night – and the Fuel was 0 for 4.