Led by Shawn Szydlowski’s five goals, three of which came with his team short-handed, the Komets got a 6-4 victory over the Missouri Mavericks on Saturday at Memorial Coliseum.

No Komets player had scored five goals in a game since Ron Leef did it Dec. 4, 1983, against Kalamazoo. He is the fifth player in franchise history to accomplish the feat.

Szydlowski is only the second Fort Wayne player with four goals in a game since Sean Venedam did it against Richmond on Dec. 17, 2004.

Eric Faille assisted on all five of Szydlowski's goals.

The Komets, who are on a 12-4-3 run, have clinched home-ice advantage for the first round of the playoffs, which will be against either the third or fourth seed from the North Division. Fort Wayne, which was the last team to get a playoff berth in the Eastern Conference last year, is two points back of Toledo for first place and the top seed in the division.

(Check out photos and video highlights from the game above this post.)

In an odd twist, the Komets weren’t wearing orange, but their opponents were. The Komets donned blue 1980s throwback jerseys that are being auctioned off to benefit prostate cancer awareness and research. The Komets (41-15-6) will wear the sweaters again Sunday against the Mavericks (23-32-7).

The Komets scored the only three goals of the first period, while out-shooting Missouri 17-8, including 5-1 in the first 5:15.

Szydlowski opened the scoring on a breakaway at 11:46, when he put the puck just above the glove of goaltender Josh Robinson.

With the Komets on a power play, a blue-line shot by defenseman James Martin was redirected into the net by Christian Ouellet for a 2-0 lead at 15:30.

Szydlowski made it 3-0 with a breakaway goal at 17:47; he lifted a backhand shot just inside the crossbar with the Komets short-handed at 17:47.

Missouri forward Andrew Courtney scored 41 seconds into the second period by squeezing between two defenders and snapping a 42-foot shot into the top of the net.

Courtney almost scored again at 7:20, after weaving his way through the defense, but goaltender Pat Nagle thwarted his shot from 8 feet out to preserve a 3-1 lead.

A big open-ice hit by former Komets defenseman Colten Hayes opened things up for his teammate, forward Geoff Walker, to score from the right circle for Missouri at 17:36.

Tempers flared at the end of the second period, when 10 players began pushing and shoving and Fort Wayne’s Cody Sol couldn’t get past the officials to try and fight Courtney.

Szydlowski polished off his hat trick – it was his team-leading 29th goal of the season in his 47th game – at the end of a 2-on-1 rush 39 seconds into the third period. It was Szydlowski’s second short-handed goal of the night and the Komets’ ninth short-handed goal of the season, tied for eighth most in the league. (Fort Wayne has given up seven short-handed goals.)

Missouri’s Tyler Currier capitalized on a Sebastian Thinel centering pass to cut the Fort Wayne lead to one at 7:33. Szydlowski answered 2:24 later for a 5-3 lead. After a Courtney goal, Szydlowski added an empty-netter.

It was Nagle’s first game with the Komets since stopping 19 of 21 shots in a 3-2 victory over Gwinnett. He was called up to the Utica Comets of the American Hockey League on Feb. 23, stopping 25 of 28 shots in one game, a loss, with them before being returned to Fort Wayne on Friday.

The presence of Nagle (21-5-2) gives the Komets three goalies, including Roman Will (12-7-4) and recently acquired Mark Guggenberger (1-1-0), but Guggenberger was placed on injured reserve Saturday for undisclosed reasons.

Notes: Missouri's Thinel, who faced the Komets with Missouri in the CHL, was chasing that league’s all-time scoring record before it was absorbed by the ECHL last summer. He had 919 points in the CHL, behind Joe Burton’s 985 and Travis Clayton’s 982. Thinel has 51 points so far this season, so he would still be 15 points short of the record. Also, the scoring on a goal from Friday’s game has been changed from Drew Daniels to Eric Faille.

jcohn@jg.net