Before Friday night's game, some of the Komets forwards were joking in the locker room about burning, breaking or hanging their sticks, trying to lighten the tension before trying to use them to find some scoring.

This time the lack of offense hurt them badly as they lost their first home game of year, 3-2 to Muskegon before 8,176 Memorial Coliseum fans. The Komets have scored seven goals in their last four games, and though they are the International Hockey League's best defensive team, they have scored only 31 goals in 11 games.

“We had chances. In the second period, I think we out-chanced them 12-6, and couldn't finish,” Komets coach Al Sims said. “We had a lot of 2-on-1 breaks that we didn't get shots on. We've got to shoot the pucks on those chances to give ourselves a chance to score. We tried the make passes, and it's an empty net if you make it, but the passes were not connecting, and their defense did a good job of taking away the passes on 2-on-1s.”

Muskegon's goaltender, Sebastien Centomo, was spectacular at times, making four or five game-saving stops when the Komets had a 2-1 lead in the second period. The Komets had several chances to push the lead to two, but Centomo robbed them with a good glove hand, erasing his defensemen's mistakes.

“He's been really good,” Muskegon coach Rich Kromm said. “He's a guy that steps his game up when you need him to and makes the big save when he has to. It's really a confidence builder for the players because they can relax and play in front of him.”

Maybe Centomo's smartest play was not freezing the puck in the final seconds to force another faceoff in the Muskegon zone. He kept the puck alive, allowing the Lumberjacks to kill the clock. Then a handful of the Fort Wayne fans showered the Lumberjacks with beverages as the Muskegon players imitated the Komets' usual post-victory salute to the crowd by raising their sticks.

The Komets were playing without assistant coach Colin Chaulk who was at his grandmother's funeral. Konstantin Shafranov is out with an injury and Matt Syroczynski is still with Norfolk of the American Hockey League, but the Komets seem to be snakebitten when they do get scoring chances. Rick Varone has yet to light the lamp after scoring 23 goals last year, David Hukalo is finding his legs after missing the first month of the season and everyone else is trying to make the perfect play for a goal.

“We had a lot of chances and somehow we have to bear down on those,” Komets captain Guy Dupuis said. “I think we got more quality chances. It's going to come. You win playoffs and championships with defense, and we have the best defense so far in the league. We have the weapons here, and it's just a matter of time before we get rolling offensively.”

Without the scoring, the pressure is increased on some very young defensemen whose mistakes are magnified. On the game-winning goal, the Komets turned the puck over at their own blue line. The Lumberjacks' Bobby Bolt grabbed it for a shot that Tim Haun stopped, but Muskegon's Brian Bicek beat Frankie DeAngelis to the rebound for the goal.

Though the Komets have yet to give up a power-play goal at home, killing all 28 opponent chances, including seven Friday night, they took four consecutive minors in the second period. They stopped the IHL's most potent power play, but the extra effort killed their momentum. When the goals are so hard to come by, the Komets can't afford to cost themselves any chances by sitting in the penalty box.

“Well, we talk about it all the time, but nothing seems to change,” Sims said. “You'll have to talk to the guys who are taking them.”

Right now, the Komets would like to find a way to let their sticks do the talking.