KALAMAZOO, MI – The Kalamazoo Wings (3-7-0-0), proud ECHL affiliate of the National Hockey League’s Vancouver Canucks, fell to the Cincinnati Cyclones (5-5-0-0) at Wings Event Center Saturday, 5-4.
To begin the game, head coach Joel Martin appealed for a rare illegal lineup penalty against the Cyclones, which put the K-Wings on the power-play. Unfortunately, the Cyclones scored a short-handed and a power-play goal at the 2:43 and 7:53 marks..
In response, rookie Antonio Venuto (2) fired the puck from the slot inside the right bar, bringing the deficit to one at the 19:00 mark, and his point streak to five games. Setting up Venuto, Zach Okabe (8) stole the puck and dished it to Quinn Preston (8) in the left circle, who then relayed it to Venuto.
Cincinnati then capitalized on the power play in the final second of the period, making it 3-1.
In the second frame, rookie Hunter Strand (2) scored on a breakaway at the 8:52 mark, as Nolan Walker (6) freed the puck to Colin Bilek (2), who then centered a pass from the neutral zone boards to streaking Strand.
The K-Wings weren’t done yet, as Venuto (3) continued his hot streak, scoring his second goal of the night at the 10:16 mark. On the play, rookie Jack Jaunich (1) corralled the loose puck behind the net and dotted Venuto at the top of the crease for his first multi-goal game of his career.
Scoring their first even-strength goal of the contest, the Cyclones broke the 3-3 tie with 3:01 left in the period. Cincinnati scored again at the 5:55 mark of the third, bringing the score to 5-3.
Kalamazoo drew to within one goal again, as Jaunich (2) caught the Cyclone’s netminder off guard at the 11:43 mark of the third period. On the play, rookie forward Colson Gengenbach (1) cleared the puck the length of the ice, and Jaunich collected it off the endwall and fired a cross-body strike from the goal line.
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