Komets captain Jamie Schaafsma finally scored – twice – in a 7-5 victory Friday over the Evansville IceMen.

Schaafsma’s first goal of the season came with his team short-handed 9:18 into the third period for a 5-3 lead, and he added a late empty-net goal to cement Fort Wayne’s third victory in its last four games.

The Komets (10-8-0) also got two goals from Nikita Kashirsky, and one apiece from Garrett Thompson (short-handed), Brett Perlini (power play) and Cody Corbett, who has scored in three of the last four games.

Komets goaltender Spencer Martin stopped 27 of 32 shots. Cody Reichard, a native of Celina, Ohio, and a former Komets player, stopped 12 of 17 shots for Evansville (6-12-0) before he was yanked in the third period by former Fort Wayne coach Al Sims.

It was the first meeting of the season between the in-state rivals. Fort Wayne has won nine of the last 10 meetings and is 34-15-5 all-time against the IceMen, who got two goals from Daultan Leveille and one apiece from Alex Guptill, Matthew Zay and Jordan Sims, who is Al’s son and was born in Fort Wayne.

Back in the Fort Wayne lineup for the first time since Nov. 7 was forward Shawn Szydlowski, who was selected MVP by his teammates last season and had three goals and 11 points in eight games before suffering a lower-body injury that kept him out nine games.

After missing eight games because he was with Utica of the higher-level American Hockey League, defenseman Drew Daniels was back, too, and he assisted on a goal, bringing his season totals to two goals, 12 points and a plus-9 rating in 10 games.

In his first game with the Komets since being acquired in a trade Thursday with Alaska, forward Joe Perry set up Kashirsky’s goal for a 1-0 lead 7:05 into the first period. To get Perry, the Komets gave up forward Peter Sivak.

A crowd of 2,775 was on hand at the Ford Center, the building with which the IceMen’s inability to secure a mutually beneficial lease for next season has put the franchise’s future in doubt.

The Komets next play this Friday at Memorial Coliseum against Indy, in the first half of a home-and-home series.

jcohn@jg.net