Did you know that the Komets have just as many championships (nine) as years that they've missed the playoffs? That's incredible, considering the Komets have been playing for 64 seasons.

However, I was a little surprised how seldom Fort Wayne has met Cincinnati in the postseason. The Komets have lost two of the three playoff series they’ve had against teams from Cincinnati, winning 7 of 16 games along the way.

The Cincinnati Mohawks were the second playoff opponent the Komets ever faced – it came in their fourth International Hockey League season in 1956 – and the Mohawks won the best-of-five semifinals series 3-1.

In 1994, the Komets beat the Cyclones 4-2 to reach the IHL finals, where they lost to the Atlanta Knights. And in the 2014 playoffs, Gary Graham’s first as Fort Wayne’s head coach, the Komets followed a first-round upset of top-seeded Reading with a 4-2 loss to the Cyclones.

Fort Wayne has a 5-5-0 record this season against Cincinnati, but the Komets have won four of the last six games. Leading the Komets have been Mike Embach, who has six goals and 10 points in nine games against his former team this season, and Shawn Szydlowski, who has four goals and 10 points in seven games.

Szydlowski, who had 16 goals and was third in the ECHL with 75 points, was selected MVP by his teammates Saturday. Last season, Szydlowski had two goals and six points in eight playoff games before a knee-to-knee hit by A.J. Jenks ended his season and helped Toledo eliminate Fort Wayne in the second round.

“There’s a level of just pride in him. I’m very, very happy for him (getting MVP for a second straight year),” Graham said. “He had that knee injury last year. If you look at guys that come off a major knee injury like that, (you can see) how they handle adversity, and there were a couple dry spells for him this season and he didn’t let that get him down. He kept battling through it. He got hot and he stayed hot.”

Cincinnati’s leading scorer, Jack Downing (32 goals, 64 points), has six goals and 12 points in 10 games against the Komets, who got back forward Troy Bourke from San Antonio of the American Hockey League today.