The Komets asserted a lot of pressure and seemed to have another victory in their grasp. But they let down – for a span of 1 minute, 3 seconds – and Toledo made them pay in posting a 4-3 victory in Game 3 of the Central Division finals in front of 5,787 fans Wednesday at Memorial Coliseum.

“I just thought as soon as we get away from forechecking these guys, that's when the problems happen. It's the same guys who are (continually) guilty of it, and I'd definitely expect to see some lineup changes for sure (in Game 4),” said coach Gary Graham, whose Komets are down 2-1 in the best-of-7 series that continues at 8 p.m. Friday at the Coliseum.

Looming largely are the Komets' failure to convert on four power plays – including one in the last minute after A.J. Jenks sent Garrett Thompson headfirst into the boards and out of the game – and a Dennis Kravchenko goal that was waved off because it came a split second after the second period horn.

The Komets still had a victory in their sights, thanks to consecutive goals from 40 or more feet by Cody Sol, Bobby Shea and Daniel Maggio, the last coming 2:52 into the third period for a 3-2 lead.

“We've got to get traffic. (Pat Nagle) is a good goalie and we've got to take what they give us,” Graham said. “Sometimes it's from the point and sometimes it's from the back of the net, which we were working on early in the game. I think we can do a better job of defending the back of the net in our own end. And I think we need to do a better job of creating offense from below the goal line.”

The 1:03 span began with Dylan Sadowy's second goal of the night, on a shot from the top of the left circle, at 14:05 of the third period. Maggio was penalized for high-sticking 20 seconds later. On the ensuing power play, Shane Berschbach netted the winning goal by one-timing a cross-ice pass from Mike Borkowski.

“We've got to come and play like we did in the first and second periods tonight,” Fort Wayne's Gabriel Desjardins said. “In the third period, we went away from that and we didn't finish our checks.”

Michael Houser stopped 27 of 31 shots for Fort Wayne, though the first chance he faced went in when a Sadowy shot caromed off the Komets' Ryan Lowney and went in 3:37 into the first period. Mike Embach made it 2-0 in the second period – also at 3:37 – capitalizing on a turnover forced by teammate Kyle Bonis.

“You could see the momentum shift (when they tied it at 3), but we've got to find a way to swing the momentum back our way,” Komets captain Jamie Schaafsma said. “I thought finishing checks and getting a little greasier, that's how you take away a team's momentum. I thought we struggled to do that in the third period.”

Nagle stopped 36 of 39 shots.

Notes: Bruce Boudreau, coach of the NHL's Minnesota Wild, attended the game. He's a former player and coach with the Komets and his son Ben is a current assistant coach. ... While the Walleye normally provides a code so fans can watch playoff games for free on ECHL-TV, the Komets and the Coliseum successfully battled against it Wednesday, desirous that people in town should buy tickets or pay for the broadcast. Fans in Ohio could still watch the game on regional TV, but it was blacked out here.

jcohn@jg.net