From one team holding the ECHL’s longest winning streak to another holding their longest losing streak, the Central Division is filled with comers and goers as the season approaches its midway point.

The Komets (16-7-6) find themselves somewhere in the middle. They’ve lost five in a row but are staying afloat with points in six of their last seven and a restored confidence after hanging tough with the Kansas City Mavericks last weekend.

“The vibes, there’s still a lot of belief in this room,” Komets coach Jesse Kallechy said. “I think there are a lot of teams that would kill to be in the position we’re in right now.”

The Komets could restore a lot of faith in their divisional title hopes during their upcoming three-game weekend, starting at 7:30 p.m. today against the Cincinnati Cyclones at Memorial Coliseum. They’ll also play back-to-back games against the Toledo Walleye, first at the Huntington Center at 7:15 p.m. Saturday, before wrapping up the weekend in Fort Wayne at 5 p.m. Sunday. Toledo has won 10 straight.

“This is about as hard as our schedule is gonna be, which is an awesome challenge,” Komets coach Jesse Kallechy said. “As a coach, you want to see your team challenged and you want to see how they respond. … I think we just wanna play good, consistent hockey. That’s going to be our mindset against two really good teams.”

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Fort Wayne is coming off two overtime losses — 3-2 on Friday and 2-1 on Saturday — to the Western Conference-leading Mavericks. While the offense continued to struggle, Kallechy pointed to the penalty kill and the performance by goaltender Nathan Day as positives.

“We gave up three goals in regulation against one of the highest scoring teams in the league,” Kallechy said. “I think when I look back on it, our defending details, if we do that consistently, we’ll be OK.”

“We’re missing some horsepower. Then you go to Kansas City and play a team that has 13 contracted guys (to AHL or NHL). I’m proud of the guys. I thought Saturday we could have won that game.”

Depleted by injuries and callups over recent weeks, the Komets made plenty of moves to reload their forward group over the past week. On top of signing Matt Berry and Gustav Muller last week before the road trip, the Komets traded alternate captain Zach Jordan to the Maine Mariners in exchange for former Komets forward Lynden McCallum.

The Cyclones (14-11-3) are in a fight with the Bloomington Bison and the Indy Fuel for the pivotal fourth-place position in the divisional standings after a rough start to the new year. Cincinnati was outscored 11-1 in a pair of losses to Toledo last weekend, with goaltenders Tommy Scarfone and Kyle McClellan both being pulled in their respective starts.

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Fort Wayne has had its yips at the Coliseum, where it is 5-4-2 and lost its last five. Its last home victory was Dec. 7 against the Cyclones. Kallechy said ending the cold spell on home ice comes down to addressing an issue that’s plagued his team home and away: finishing off opponents.

“We haven’t closed games out,” Kallechy said. “We’ve been in situations where our home record could be a lot different if we had closed some games out.”

The Walleye (19-5-4) started their winning streak with a 5-4 overtime win over Fort Wayne on Dec. 6. Toledo’s offense has been the hottest in the ECHL at 4.9 goals per game during the streak.

Reigning MVP Brandon Hawkins has extended his league lead in points to 43 (16 goals, 27 assists) over that stretch. Hawkins had three assists in the Dec. 6 win and was the source of ire from the Komets with his takedown of forward Jayden Grubbe in the third period. Grubbe ended up on the IR, and Hawkins was fined by the ECHL Department of Player Safety.