CINCINNATI, OH – The Kalamazoo Wings (22-23-3-3), proud ECHL affiliate of the National Hockey League’s Vancouver Canucks, battled hard but were bested in the third period, falling to the Cincinnati Cyclones (25-23-3-0) on Saturday at Heritage Bank Arena, 4-2.
After an uneventful first period, Cincinnati struck first with a goal at the 4:30 mark of the middle frame.
Jackson Kunz (4) responded by forcing the puck through to knot the game at one at the 15:20 mark. On the play, Andre Ghantous (14) passed to a firing Jayden Lee (16) at the blue line that caromed off the goaltender’s pads and was collected by Kunz in the crease for the equalizer.
Kunz (5) then broke away on the rush and delivered a beautiful bar-down snipe, notching his first professional multi-goal game and giving the K-Wings a 2-1 lead at the 18:59 mark. On the goal, Powell Connor (7) slipped a pass to Kunz in the defensive zone who went back-and-forth with Ghantous (15) before scoring the goal on the rush.
Unfortunately, the Cyclones owned the final frame, scoring a pair of goals at the 11:22 and 15:33 marks. Cincinnati then added an empty net goal with 34 seconds remaining to finalize a 4-2 score.
Aku Koskenvuo (2-6-0-0) was phenomenal in net, making 35 saves in the contest, and the K-Wings went 2-for-2 on the penalty kill.
Next up, Kalamazoo looks for revenge against the Cincinnati Cyclones tomorrow at 3:05 p.m. EST at Heritage Bank Center.
