The Komets survived a late surge by Rapid City to win 6-4 in front of 7,433 fans at Memorial Coliseum on Friday.

Justin Hodgman returned after a shoulder injury sidelined him since October. He made an immediate impact with an assist on a Marco Roy goal 15 seconds into the first period.

“It felt really good, especially to get a win and obviously get a line score in the first shift to help the team,” Hodgman said. “When you play against a team that's struggling, you get a goal in the first shift and you might think, 'Oh, it's going to be an easy night.' That's not the case.

“I think you could see for a little while we may have eased up but, thankfully, we had a good leadership group and we turned it around. I thought we played way better after the first period.”

Hodgman also recorded a second assist on Cody Sol's empty-net goal with 7 seconds left in the game.

“I'm 29 years old, in my 10th year of pro, and I had legitimate nerves before the game, which is pretty rare for doing it so many times,” Hodgman said. “The guys made it really easy on me, the coach made it really easy on me, they showed trust in me when we were only up by one with 30 seconds left so that felt really good, as well.”

The Komets led 2-1 after the first period. Ryan Lowney made it 3-1 5:56 seconds into the period. Rapid City's Tyler Deresky cut the lead to 3-2 with 1:01 left in the period.

Back-to-back goals from Sol and Shawn Szydlowski put the Komets up 5-2 3:42 into the third period. Rapid City responded when Kenton Miller scored less than three minutes later. Riley Weselowski cut the lead to 5-4 with 1:33 left in the game.

“I thought our identity throughout the game, there were some highs and some lows,” coach Gary Graham said. “When we took care of the puck is when we were at our best.

“We really had too many turnovers tonight. It really hurt us against a fast transition team; a young hungry team. When you give them opportunities like that, they hadn't scored a lot of goals in their last few games, so to give up that many goes against a team that's been struggling to score is disappointing. Give the guys credit to find a way to get two points on home ice.”

Garrett Bartus made 25 saves on 29 shots for the Komets, and Adam Vay saved 25 of 30 shots for the Rush.

“They never stopped working,” Komets captain Jamie Schaafsma said of Rapid City. “They made it tough on us. They didn't give up. They stayed in the battle and they forced it down to the wire and made us have to close it out.

“I thought they played a heavy game and worked hard. I don't think we played the greatest tonight but it could have been worse. It's good to see a team like us have success when we maybe don't play our best game.”

Note: Goaltender Michael Houser was called up to Tuscon on Friday. Andy DiCristofaro was the backup goaltender Friday. He is the cousin of Indiana Tech coach Frank DiCristofaro and is the goaltending coach for the Warriors.

areichel@jg.net