FORT WAYNE, IN – The Kalamazoo Wings (35-27-3-0), proud ECHL affiliate of the National Hockey League’s Vancouver Canucks, battled back twice but ultimately fell to the Fort Wayne Komets (33-27-3-3) at Allen County War Memorial Coliseum Saturday, 5-2.
Goaltender Hunter Vorva (18-11-0-0) weathered an early onslaught and made 23 saves on 24 shots against in the first period. The Kalamazoo native finished the game with 37 saves.
Fort Wayne opened the scoring at the 38-second mark of the first period.
Brad Morrison (13) tied the game at one by burying a loose puck from above the crease on the power play at the 4:56 mark. Michael Joyaux (23) created the chance with a shot from the point while Ayden MacDonald (8) passed the puck to Morrison on the doorstep.
The Komets took a 2-1 lead at the 3:44 mark of the second.
Collin Saccoman (7) made it 2-2 with a wrister from the left circle at the 7:01 mark of the third. Erik Bradford (50) used open space to hit Saccoman with a pass from the right side while Derek Daschke (19) recorded the secondary assist on the 4-on-4 tally.
Fort Wayne retook the lead with a power-play goal 43 seconds later and added goals at 12:45 and 15:48.
The K-Wings finished the game 1-for-4 on the power play and 2-for-3 on the penalty kill. Fort Wayne took the final shot total, 42-28.
Kalamazoo finished its stretch of 10 games in 20 days 6-4-0-0, and added another winning month to its 2023-24 resume (March: 8-7).
The K-Wings are back in action Wednesday at 7:35 p.m. EDT against the Cincinnati Cyclones (29-31-6-0) at Heritage Bank Center.
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