WEST VALLEY CITY, Utah – The Komets have a commanding 3-0 lead over the Utah Grizzlies in the best-of-seven Western Conference semifinals and can advance to the third round of the playoffs with a victory tonight at the Maverik Center.

They aren’t taking anything for granted, though, not after the Grizzlies outplayed Fort Wayne for two-thirds of Wednesday’s game, a 3-1 victory by the Komets after third-period goals by Shawn Szydlowski, Mike Embach and Garrett Thompson.

"We want to finish them off in four games if we can, get back to Fort Wayne and get some rest, then prepare for whoever is next," Szydlowski said. "But we know this series isn’t over. Crazier things have happened. We talked about it (already) that there’s blood in the water for us and we want to finish them off."

After the Komets gave up the game’s first goal, 2:49 into the first period on Jon Puskar’s shot from the bottom of the right circle, it took a picturesque Szydlowski goal to change the course of the game. He toe-dragged the puck around a sliding player – Puskar – and then sent the puck above the shoulder of goaltender Mark Owuya and into a small opening beneath the crossbar.

"It all started with (Cody Sol). He had a strong pinch and kept the puck in the offensive zone," said Szydlowski, whose 12 playoffs points are second only to the 13 of Allen’s Chad Costello. "I battled the guy and beat him and luckily I was able to take it from there. I just had a little patience and luckily found the upstairs."

Since losing the first two games of the playoffs, at Memorial Coliseum to the Cincinnati Cyclones, the Komets have won 7 of 8 games and are on the cusp of their first sweep in a best-of-seven series since they ousted the United Hockey League’s Elmira Jackals in the second round of the 2003 playoffs. Fort Wayne went on to a championship that season.

The Komets swept a best-of-five series with the Central Hockey League’s Bloomington PrairieThunder in the first round in 2011. The Komets last had a 3-0 lead in a best-of-seven in the 2012 CHL finals and lost 4-3 to the Wichita Thunder at the Coliseum before winning Game 5, 6-3.

But the Komets don’t think they’re going to cruise by tonight, not after they needed 20 Pat Nagle saves in Game 3.

"You can’t," coach Gary Graham said. "If you look out there, in that game, we could have easily been down 2- or 3-nothing. They had the better scoring chances in the first two periods, and Nags made some big saves. What it comes down to is that we got the saves when we needed it and we got the scoring when we needed it."

If a Game 5 is needed, it will be Saturday at the Maverik Center.

The winner of this series will face either reigning champion Allen or top-seeded Missouri. Allen has a 2-1 lead. The Komets would have home-ice advantage over Allen but not Missouri.

Although the Komets rode hot starts in the first two games of this series to victories – they outscored the Grizzlies 4-0 in the first four minutes of the games – they needed resiliency to get the Game 3 victory in their first game at Utah since 1999 in the International Hockey League.

"We had to make some changes during the game because they made some adjustments," Graham said. "We had some in-game adjustments that made us better as the game went on, but I thought (the Grizzlies) were a lot better (in Game 3). Utah, they played a solid game. Their goaltender played well. But for us it’s about being resilient right now. We found a way."

jcohn@jg.net