A lively crowd at Fishers Event Center Friday night watched the Indy Fuel skate past the Iowa Heartlanders 5-2.

Iowa pulled goaltender Riley Mercer with two minutes remaining while trailing 4-2, but the Heartlanders could not capitalize. Matt Petgrave sealed the victory with an empty-net goal with 39 seconds left in regulation.

The Fuel struck first in the opening period. Cody Laskosky scored less than four minutes into the contest to give Indy an early 1-0 lead. Jadon Joseph extended the advantage to 2-0 with just over seven minutes remaining in the first period. Iowa answered late in the frame when Keltie Jeri-Leon scored with under a minute to play, cutting the deficit to 2-1 after one period.

Terry Broadhurst pushed the Fuel lead to 3-1 in the second period. With just 50 seconds remaining in the period, Max Patterson scored for Iowa to make it 3-2 heading into the second intermission.

Late in the second period, Fuel defenseman Nick Grima sent the puck into the stands and was assessed a delay of game penalty, resulting in an Iowa power play to open the third. Indy killed off the penalty, maintaining its one-goal edge. Sahil Panwar added an insurance goal midway through the final period to give the Fuel a 4-2 lead before Petgrave’s empty-netter closed out the scoring.

The victory keeps the Fuel solidly in third place in the Western Conference Central Division standings.

The two teams meet again Saturday night in Fishers, where a sellout crowd is expected. Faceoff is set for 7 p.m.