We’re going to have to start calling Jamie Schaafsma “Mr. Game 7.”

His two goals tonight in the Komets’ 2-0 victory over the Cincinnati Cyclones is reason enough, perhaps, but in North American leagues he’s got a 7-0 record in Game 7s.

There was a Game 7 he played in Europe, Schaafsma said, but he lost that one. We’ll ignore it for our purposes.

“It’s always nice to contribute. I said earlier in the series that we had to get greasy goals. Those goals just show what happens if you go to the net. They were both easy tap-ins for me,” said Schaafsma, whose Komets face Utah in a series that starts Friday at Memorial Coliseum.

Fort Wayne’s Paul Crowder, who missed Game 6 with an upper-body injury and came in with a team-worst minus-5 rating in the playoffs, set up the first goal by leisurely carrying the puck into the offensive zone and dropping the puck for Troy Bourke, whose backhand pass put Schaafsma in position to score into an open net.

After Cincinnati’s goalie, Brad Thiessen, failed to cover the puck – that had been his weak point all series – Schaafsma made it 2-0 by poking the puck in at 13:38 of the second period.

And how about Pat Nagle? The Komets goalie stopped 33 shots for his second shutout of the playoffs. No other goalie in the ECHL has two shutouts. And Nagle led the league with five during the regular season.

“This was a huge team effort,” Nagle said. “It was great to get two big goals early in the game from our captain. He showed up in a big way for us and it was awesome. He got us that lead right away and we were able to play strong the rest of the way.”

The Komets have 11 players who had never been in the postseason before. They had to learn how to win in the postseason and they did, taking four of the last five games.

“We learned how to play a playoff style game,” Schaafsma said. “The first two games, we weren’t playing the right way and weren’t making the smart decisions on the ice. I called it. I thought we would be a team that had to learn how to play playoff hockey throughout the first round. We’ve accomplished that and I’m pretty happy about that.”

The Komets will have a light day Thursday, so they can rest after playing three overtime games among the last four. Utah, which ended its six-game series with Colorado on Tuesday, will travel Thursday. I heard the Grizzlies are flying into Indianapolis and then bussing up here.

While the Komets were very familiar with Cincinnati, they haven’t faced Utah this season. So there will be a lot of studying over the next two days by both teams.

In the other Game 7 tonight, Allen beat Idaho 3-2 in overtime. Former Fort Wayne player Tristan King had the winner.

“It takes awhile to get (chemistry). You need games,” said Komets coach Gary Graham, whose team lost the first two games to Cincinnati. “Sometimes pressure and adversity can makes guys come together as a group. What better way is there to do that than digging yourself a 2-nothing hole in the series?”

jcohn@jg.net