TOLEDO, OH (WKZO AM/FM) – The Kalamazoo Wings (8-11-0-0) exploded in the second period with four goals and rattled off six straight by the time the dust settled to defeat the Toledo Walleye (11-4-1-2) 6-2 at Huntington Center Wednesday.
Four Kalamazoo defensemen (Robert Calisti, Collin Saccoman, Kurt Gosselin, and Derek Daschke) found the back of the net in the road win. With five K-Wings recording two or more points (Calisti, Gosselin, Daschke, Ty Glover, Erik Bradford), the victory marks the greatest number of multipoint outings in a single game for Kalamazoo this season.
Toledo opened the scoring at the 10:27 mark of the first and doubled its lead 1:41 later. It was all Kalamazoo after that, though.
Justin Taylor (1) put the K-Wings on the board with a power play goal at the 12:41 mark of the second, deflecting a Calisti (5) shot from the right circle with Gosselin (2) also assisting the Taylor tip-in.
Kalamazoo pulled even at the 15:01 mark with a clap-bomb sent into the top right corner by Calisti (4) just minutes later. Bradford (11) and Glover (8) assisted Calisti’s second point of the game on a delayed rush.
The K-Wings pulled ahead 2:02 later when Saccoman (2) scored the game-winner. The goal came courtesy of Brad Morrison’s patience out front (11) to find Saccoman after Bradford (12) hustled down a puck on the wall to start the first of two straight while skating 4-on-4.
Gosselin (2) added a goal against his former team 52 ticks after that. Daschke (3) and Josh Passolt (3) used crisp passing to set up the steezy marker that rounded out Kalamazoo’s first four-goal period of the season.
Daschke (1), another former Walleye, scored his first goal as a K-Wing at the 7:05 mark of the third, intercepting a Walleye attempt to clear the zone and depositing it in the back of the net.
Ty Glover (7) put a bow on things with 12:00 remaining in regulation, cleaning up the trash out front. David Keefer (6) and Gosselin (3) assisted Kalamazoo’s season-best sixth goal of the game.
Goaltender Jonathan Lemieux (6-7-0-0) made 29 saves and held Toledo scoreless for the final 47:52 in the win.
Kalamazoo finished the game 1-for-4 on the power play and 2-for-2 on the penalty kill. Toledo took the final shot total, 31-25.
The K-Wings will be back in action Friday at 7:00 p.m. EST versus the Iowa Heartlanders (9-7-2-1) at Wings Event Center.
Broadcast time on 590/106.9 WKZO is set for 6:35 pm.
THIS ARTICLE WRITTEN BY CHRIS CADEAU, VOICE OF THE K WINGS
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