Kalamazoo power play grabs 3-0 lead

KALAMAZOO, Mich. – “It’s playoff hockey. You only get so many chances a game and you really want to bear down,” Justin Taylor said after his second-straight two-goal performance. “I think there’s just a bit more determination (on my part).”

Taylor scored two goals, including the game winner in a 5-4 victory over the Reading Royals at Wings Stadium. Taylor leads all ECHL players with seven goals, scoring all of them during a five-game goal scoring streak.
“I’m just going to the net. I give a lot of credit to the other four guys that are out there. They’re putting the puck in the area where I seem to thrive on all year,” he said.
With the win, Kalamazoo takes a stranglehold on the series, going up 3-0 with Game Four of the series to be played at Wings Stadium on Friday night.
The biggest key to the game for the K-Wings rested with a highly-potent power play attack. Already third in the ECHL in post-season power play percentage (24-percent), Kalamazoo cashed in for a staggering four power plays goals.
“I think we were a little bit lucky tonight and we had a lot of ugly goals,” Head Coach Nick Bootland said about his team’s power play. “The good thing is that we had traffic in front to get those goals but at the same time we were pretty fortunate.”
Forward Trent Daavettila got the K-Wings on the board first, stick-handling his way through the feet of multiple defensemen before putting a backhand on net. Royals goaltender Ben Scrivens made the save but couldn’t stop Daavettila from jamming the rebound between his legs.
After the goal, Scrivens left the game with an apparent injury and was replaced by Matt Dalton for the remainder of the game.
Despite holding a massive shots-on-goal lead through the first period (18-7), the K-Wings couldn’t keep the Royals off the scoreboard. Forward Yannick Riendeau tied the game on a power play goal with a little less than two minutes remaining in the period.
The second period was a different story.
Kalamazoo struck for their first power play goal of the game only 1:02 into the second. Kory Karlander’s sharp-angle shot deflected off a Royals defender and into the net to give the home team the lead.
After that, Reading came back strong.
“We knew they were going to come back. They’re battling for their lives. They don’t want to go down 3-0 just like we don’t want to be up 2-1,” Taylor said.
Only 42 seconds after Karlander’s tally, Riendeau scored his second goal of the game. With the momentum shifting to Reading’s end, forward Andrew Sarauercame up big, scoring his third goal of the playoffs to give his team their first lead of the series.
“We just have to keep it simple, shoot the puck,” Royals forward Ryan Cruthers said. “Just try and find that chemistry or get an ugly goal that gets the ball rolling.”
Cruthers led the Royals with one goal and two assists. His line with Riendeau and Olivier Labelle continues to be the driving for the Royals. The line has combined for 22 points through the team’s first seven games.
“The last month of the season we all got put together,” he said. “We’ve had some success here, we play well together, we all kind of complement each other well.”
Continuing the shoot-out style play that dominated the second period, Kalamazoo quickly tied the score with their second power play goal of the night. Ryan McGinnis’ shot from the blue-line attacked a group in front, deflecting off of Taylor and finding its way behind Dalton.
Five minutes later, the K-Wings struck again on the power play. Forward Brandon Svendson’s slap shot smashed off of Dalton’s head, temporarily getting caught up in his helmet before popping out front where Taylor put it away.
“We have three scoring lines and all three lines can play in our D-zone too,” Taylor said. “Every line seems to be putting the puck in the net for us.”
Despite the lead, Bootland wasn’t impressed with his team’s play in the second period.
“We don’t want to get into a game like that,” he said. “We don’t want to get into a game where we’re taking chances and we’re being cute with the puck. Too much of east, west, and south actually. We kept taking pucks back into our zone when they were forcing us. We have to go north against them and keep things ugly and simple.”
Kalamazoo followed that mantra throughout the third period. Both teams played back-and-forth hockey before Kalamazoo took a two-goal lead with only four minutes left in regulation thanks to a Sam Ftorek slap shot that beat Dalton over the right shoulder.
Reading made one final push, pulling their goalie during a power play for a two-man advantage. Cruthers struck quickly, pulling his team within one goal, but it was too little, too late.
“It was a little late, but it did feel good and we still got a chance at the end,” Cruthers said “It was nice, it was a good goal, but it wasn’t enough.”
No stranger to the 3-0 series deficit, the Royals fell victim to the Cincinnati Cyclones last season in the Conference Finals, losing four straight games to the eventual champions.
“We’ve seen it first hand. A lot of the guys were on that team last year, so we know it’s possible because they did it to us. We’ll just take it one game at a time and try to get back to Reading with a couple wins,” Cruthers said.
Bootland hopes his players learn a couple lessons from watching the NHL playoffs this year.
“We’ll try to learn from the Chicago/Vancouver series and the egg that Vancouver laid and we’ll also discuss the fact that [Reading] knows it can be done because it happened to them last year,” he said.
The Vancouver Canucks lost game four of their first round series against the Chicago Blackhawks 7-2 after winning the first three games.
 
Contact Ryan.Loren@prohockeynews.com Photographer Larry.Burdick@prohockeynews.com