Kalamazoo drops Game One at home

KALAMAZOO, Mich – The Kalamazoo Wings saw their seven-game post-season win streak come to an end Friday night at Wings Stadium after a 3-2 overtime loss to Wheeling Nailers in game one, the best-of-seven Conference Final. Previously, the K-Wings only loss in the playoffs came in game one of their first round series against the Florida Everblades.
Forward Brandon DeFazio scored the overtime winner with a short-side snap shot after Kalamazoo turned the puck over in front of goaltender Ryan Nie. It was DeFazio’s second goal of the night and fourth goal of the playoffs.
“You can’t really put words to those kind of things. It just happens and you take it all in,” DeFazio said about his overtime winner. “Every game we move on, it gets a little bigger and a little bigger.”
Nie made 31 saves. Wheeling goaltender Peter Delmas kept his team in the game through the first two periods, making 37 saves in all.
“He [Delmas] has been our MVP so far, to say the least,” DeFazio said. “There are not many words you can put toward what he’s accomplished here. He’s our rock back there.”
Kalamazoo held a 4-3 record in overtime games during the regular season while Reading went undefeated in their only two overtime games in the regular season. Wheeling has continued that success into the playoffs, going 4-1 in overtime games.
“We’ve won eight games, all of them by one goal and four of them in overtime. We’re a team that’s probably not going to score six or seven in a game,” Wheeling Head Coach Stan Drulia said. “As long as it keeps on going, we’ll be happy about it.”
The K-Wings came out of the locker room strong in the first period, scoring the first goal for the seventh time in the last eight games. Forward Dean Strong capitalized on a delayed penalty for his fifth goal of the playoffs.
Kalamazoo out-shot the Nailers 15-to-10 in the first period.
“There were a lot of shots from the point that he [Delmas] could see and we can’t let him see them. We have to put more bodies there and pay a better price for those second-chance opportunities,” Kalamazoo Head Coach Nick Bootland said.
The K-Wings found a chance to extend their dominate power play midway through the second period. After DiFazio took back-to-back penalties, defeseman Peter Merth chipped an errant puck over the defensive glass for the delay of game penalty and a five-on-three advantage for the home team.
Forward Patrick Asselin scored his second goal of the post-season to give his team a 2-0 lead.
Kalamazoo finished 1-for-4 on the power play.
“We have to stay out of the box with this team. Their power play is so dominant. We have to be disciplined in some areas,” Drulia said.
Wheeling pulled within one goal almost six minutes later after hemming the K-Wings into their own defensive zone for over a minute. Defeseman David Urquhart scored his first goal of the playoffs.
DeFazio scored his first goal of the game during the third period, capitalizing on another Kalamazoo turnover. The tying goal came with only 5:27 left in the game.
“We’re going to enjoy this one for about an hour and then we’re going to start thinking about the process here,” Drulia said. “I think this one is going to be a long series. It’s not going to be easy.”
Bootland took the rare loss in stride.
“We’re crazy to think we’re going to go through this whole thing without losing a game. We haven’t lost in a little while so, in hindsight, when you look at the big picture, something that we want is worth battling for,” he said.
Contact the writer: Ryan.Loren@ProHockeyNews.com