K-Wings continue winless streak

KALAMAZOO , Mich. – Being a coach in the National Hockey League is tough job, but it does not get any easier at the ECHL level. The consistency of change struck the Kalamazoo Wings again, as more players saw their stock rise to the American Hockey League or drop onto the injured reserve. The changes struck the K-Wings hard, losing all three games, including two at home against the Greenville Road Warriors and one on the road against the Wheeling Nailers. The K-Wings lost by a combined score of 16 to seven. Earlier this month the K-Wings sent high-scoring forward Brandon Svendson to the AHL Bridgeport Sound Tigers and earlier this week Wings captain Wes O’Neill and defenseman Jon Landry followed him to Connecticut. Misfortune also struck the locker room when forwards Patrick Asselin, Jay Sprague, and defenseman Mitch Versteeg were placed on the injured reserve. In return, the K-Wings gained forwards Brady Leisenring and Justin Taylor, and defensemen Ryan McGinnis and Alan Dorich. Leisenring and Taylor each debuted with three goals and two assists in three games this holiday weekend. “I know that [Leisenring] has offensive instincts and I’d seen him when I was in Bridgeport for a week, so I knew he was going to skate well and he competed hard for us,” Coach Nick Bootland said after Thursday’s game. Thursday’s 7-4 loss was the closest game of the series. The game was back-and-forth all night and only ended uneven after two empty net goals from the Road Warriors to end the game. “I thought for getting in at six a.m. we were okay,” Greenville coach Dean Stork said. “We couldn’t get our feet going to start the first period. We got our feet moving a little more in the second and in the third period I thought we were just okay.” Neither team felt they played a particularly strong game, but there were positives on both ends. “We had a good stretch there in the third period. We hemmed them in the zone and we applied a lot of pressure,” Bootland said. “It comes down to the turnovers and there were way too many turnovers.” Kalamazoo followed up their Thanksgiving game with a 6-2 loss against the Road Warriors on Friday night and a 3-1 loss against the Nailers on Saturday.   The Wings have lost four games in a row and seven of their last ten. Contact the writer at Ryan.Loren@ProHockeyNews.com