K-Wings split a pair of New Year’s games

KALAMAZOO , Mich. – Last season, Darryl Lloyd earned the Kalsee Credit Union Unsung Hero award from the fans after putting up a career-best 20 goals and 44 points. He also led the team in penalty minutes that year. Despite continuing to rack up time in the penalty box, the Kalamazoo Wings’ forward has struggled to rediscover his offensive touch. Through his first 30 games, Lloyd amassed only three goals and 11 assists. Like many players on the team, Lloyd has struggled to find a rhythm on both the offensive and defensive side of the puck. “I had trouble scoring and the confidence wasn’t there,” Lloyd said. “It’s usually me just going out there and getting the guys going. If I get a goal once in a while it’s nice to see.” On Friday night, Lloyd scored two goals in at 5-2 victory against the Elmira Jackals while contributing on both sides of the puck. His efforts did not go unnoticed by Head Coach Nick Bootland. “If he’s not being a physical force for us, then he is somewhat ineffective,” Bootland said. “I think he did a great job [tonight]. I patted him on the back a couple times after shifts where he was really responsible.” Lloyd scored the first of his two goals to tie the game at two in the second period. Lloyd held onto the puck on during a three-on-two breakaway to cap off the momentum built after the K-Wings killed off a long five-on-three penalty. Despite going zero for seven on the power play, the K-Wings scored plenty of timely goals to ride a wave of momentum from the second period until the final horn sounded. The K-Wings entered the game second overall in the league on power play efficiency and 14 overall on the penalty kill. The K-Wings reversed roles by finishing four-for-four on the penalty kill, while adding a short-handed tally with defenseman Jon Landry sitting in the box for interference. Newcomer Aaron Clarke scored the shorthanded goal, which comes as no surprise to his new coach and team-mates. Last year Clarke led the league with five shorthanded goals while playing with the Wheeling Nailers. Clarke was traded to the K-Wings from the Stockton Thunder on December 28, 2010 for rookie forward Jordan Fulton. Lloyd capped off his best game of the season by scoring the K-Wings fifth and final goal of the game. The win was Kalamazoo’s second straight. The K-Wings last won two in a row December 4 – December 6, but haven’t won three in a row since starting the season 3-0. “You know what? We’re sick of losing. I think you’re going to see a new team and every game is going to be a playoff game for us,” said Lloyd. Saturday, January 1, 2011 — KALAMAZOO 1 // ELMIRA 3 The grinder gang for the Kalamazoo Wings again made an impact against the Elmira Jackals when forward Bryan Jurynec dropped the gloves against forward Brian Lebler one second after the drop of the puck. The fight was born out of a pre-game conversation between Jurynec and Lebler to get an energy-building scrap started sometime in the night. Lebler wasted no time, earning an instigator penalty for his role.

“I didn’t think he was really going to jump me and I turned and then four straight lefts to my face,” Jurynec said. “He had some good ones, I had some good ones. I’d call it a draw.” The fight did little to spark either team, as nobody managed to hit the score sheet through the first two periods. The Jackals came out of the gate firing in the third period, scoring two goals within a 1:39 span to put the K-Wings on their heels. Elmira Head Coach Malcolm Cameron learned a lot from his team’s New Year’s games in Kalamazoo. “We had a great October, great November, and a terrible December. We kind of looked at it as a fresh start,” Cameron said. “Even though we have a lot of firepower in our lineup we have to be prepared to win low-scoring games and grind it out.” Despite owning a top-10 power play, the Jackals have given up a league-high eleven shorthanded goals, including Clarke’s tally the night before. That streak continued on Saturday when Clarke again netted a shorthanded tally with four minutes left on the clock. The goal was Clarke’s second in two games as a member of the K-Wings and cut Elmira’s lead in half. “I hadn’t been scoring out there so to come and get a couple is nice, but I think that’s what’s expected of me,” Clarke said. The late goal put an end to Elmira goaltender Marco Cousineau’s bid for his first professional shutout. “I feel real bad for him, but at the same time he’s a battler and he needed a game like this and I think he’ll take the one goal,” Cameron said. Elmira finished off the game with the empty net goal from forward Corey Cowick. The win brings Elmira within six points of the division-leading Reading Royals. “I coached in the South for a number of years and rosters are lot more stable there. So you don’t see the big cycles of long winning streaks and then long losing streaks,” Cameron said. “We take care of the games and the standings take care of themselves.” With the loss, Kalamazoo drops six points behind the Wheeling Nailers, but remain tied for second in the division with the Cincinnati Cyclones. “We’re under .500 now and I haven’t been under .500 in the past two years I’ve been here. So we just have to start picking it back up again,” Jurynec said. Clarke agrees with his team-mate and hopes his positive attitude will spread through the locker room. “I’m going to do whatever it takes to get this team to the playoffs,” Clarke said. Contact the writer at Ryan.Loren@ProHockeyNews.com Photo by Larry.Burdick@prohockeynews.com