WHEN DEFENSEMAN AND captain Chris Cameron signed to come back for his fifth season with the Indy Fuel, he couldn’t help but notice how much youth surrounded him. To give you an idea, of the 25 men who made up the recent playoff roster, 18 were playing for the organization for the first time in 2025–26.
Even so, the team, which plays its home games at the Fishers Event Center and is an affiliate of the ECHL’s Chicago Blackhawks, secured a 34-27 regular season record—good enough for a Kelly Cup Playoffs appearance against its in-state rival, the Fort Wayne Komets.
The problem? The top-seeded Komets were the Fuel’s nemesis for much of the season, winning eight out of the 12 contests between the two. It was even worse in the playoffs, with Fort Wayne closing out the Fuel after five games, winning 4-1.
“You might spend 98 percent of the game doing the right things, but then that 2 percent where you lose track of the puck or let your guy get behind you, usually that ends up in your net,” Cameron says about playing this year’s Komets squad. “I don’t want to pump their tires too much, but they have some guys that can score.”
The difference in power play results was costly in the first-round series with Fort Wayne, with the opposition scoring seven times while Indy was shorthanded on the ice due to a penalty. The Fuel were only able to convert on two power plays, both in Game 4, which the Fuel won, 6-4, at home.
“Power plays and special teams have been a theme this year,” says Eva Hallman, the Fuel’s color analyst and first female broadcaster in team history, “…Whether (the Fuel) were on the power play or even on the kill, you’re just thinking, ‘Hold your breath’. And that was just because some of these guys have never been on a professional power play or penalty kill unit, and then you go up against Fort Wayne or Toledo.”
Though Fort Wayne found the back of the net toward the end of the first period in the decisive Game 5 at Allen County War Memorial Coliseum, the Fuel outshot the Komets in that frame, and the score was still 1-0 going into the third period. That’s when two Komet forwards with historical Fort Wayne ties made sure the series would not make it back to Fishers for another game.
First came captain Alex Aleardi, who was born in Fort Wayne but left very early in life, only to return for hockey three decades later. Aleardi and the Komets’ third-year head coach Jesse Kallechy were both part of a Florida Everblades team that won the 2022 Kelly Cup.
Five minutes into the third period against the Fuel on Sunday, the veteran collected the puck near the boards to the right of the goal that Indy Fuel goalie Mitchell Weeks was defending, and from less than a 45-degree angle unleashed a right-handed slap shot that beat Weeks just inside the near post.
“Coach has been saying, ‘Hang on to the pucks,’ Aleardi says. “That’s kind of the great detail we were focused on in the series, making whole plays. I got to the inside, and I know I’m a shooter, so I got one off and found a corner. It’s a nice feeling.”
Fort Wayne picked up its third goal in its second shut-out of the series (with two different goalies) less than two-and-a-half minutes after Aleardi’s laser. Nine minutes and 13 seconds into the final period, fellow Fort Wayne native Matt Miller provided a power play from an even less advantageous angle than Aleardi’s shot moments earlier.
“Matt’s kind of the straw that stirs the drink, and maybe he doesn’t get enough credit for everything he does,” Kallechy says. “He’s a guy that I use in every situation: power play, penalty kill, last minute of periods, late in games. He just does everything right, and it’s nice to see him get rewarded.”
While Miller has scored five goals this season between the regular season and playoffs, it was his first goal in Fort Wayne’s home arena.
Fort Wayne will begin its second-round, best-of-seven series at home against the Toledo Walleye on Sunday, May 10, at 5 p.m.
