The Komets needed a bit of luck. And they got it, courtesy of Gabriel Desjardins.

He broke in alone on Toledo Walleye goaltender Pat Nagle during the second period tonight at Memorial Coliseum. Nagle stopped the shot with his glove, but the puck caromed off Desjardins’ leg and into the net for what would prove to be the winning, short-handed goal for the Komets.

Their 3-1 victory, which included two Daniel Maggio goals, evened the best-of-7 Central Division finals at two games apiece. Michael Houser stopped 41 shots for the Komets.

Game 5 between the Komets and the rival Walleye will be 7:30 p.m. Saturday at the Huntington Center in Toledo, Ohio, where the teams split the first two games of the series.

The Colorado Eagles are awaiting the winner of this series, after they completed a sweep of the Idaho Steelheads with a 1-0 overtime victory Thursday night.

Video highlights from today’s game are above.

After losing at the Coliseum 4-3 on Wednesday, when his team squandered a third-period lead, Fort Wayne coach Gary Graham put forwards Justin MacDonald and Anthony Petruzzelli into the lineup and sat Artur Tyanulin, a rookie all-star, and Dennis Kravchenko, who had two goals an four points in the 5-3 series-opening victory.

Toledo, meanwhile, bolstered its lineup with the addition of Zach Nastasiuk, the third player of the week to return from Grand Rapids of the higher-level American Hockey League. The others were Mike Borkowski and Dylan Sadowy.

Fort Wayne’s Houser, who has played in all nine games of the postseason, stopped A.J. Jenks and Borkowski on shots from point-blank range, as Toledo had 11 of the first 16 shots on goal. Meanwhile, Toledo’s goalie, Nagle, thwarted a Desjardins backhand from 10 feet out.

The scoring drought was snapped 2:48 into the second period, when Toledo’s Mike Embach, the former Fort Wayne star, scored for a second straight game, snapping the puck in at the end of a 2-on-1 rush.

But it took the Komets only 17 seconds to answer; Maggio skated out of the corner to get to the rebound of a Jamie Schaafsma shot and backhand it into the net as Mason Baptista provided a screen.

As in Game 3, when Toledo flipped the game on its head in the span of 1:03, this game took a wild turn in a matter of seconds. Maggio was penalized for interference 18:18 into the second period when he upended Simon Denis from behind and Denis was on the ice motionless for a couple of minutes.

Just 18 seconds into the ensuing power play, however, the Komets netted their first short-handed goal of the playoffs when Desjardins got his breakaway for a 2-1 lead. During the regular season, the Komets were tied for second among the ECHL’s 27 teams with 13 short-handed goals and Toledo gave up only three short-handed goals, tied for best in the league.

Toledo had two excellent chances in the span six seconds to tie it early in the third period, but Houser foiled Connor Crisp at the end of a 2-on-1 rush and Sadowy from the opposite side of the net.

Maggio got his second goal of the night during a power play at 12:47, when he redirected a Jason Binkley shot for a 3-1 lead.

Nagle had 22 saves and there was a melee toward the end of the game, after Crisp sent Cody Sol hard into the boards.

Notes: A goal by Fort Wayne’s Marco Roy was waved off 13:46 into the third period when it was determined he played it in with his hand. … The referees were Alex Normandin and Jonathan Sitarski. … The Komets also played without Kevin McKernan and Justin Hodgman (concussion). … Trevor Cheek and Zac Larraza remained with Tucson of the AHL. … Garrett Thompson did play despite taking a scary hit late in Game 3 from Jenks that sent him headfirst into the boards.

jcohn@jg.net