KALAMAZOO, MI – The Kalamazoo Wings (27-25-3-3), proud ECHL affiliate of the National Hockey League’s Vancouver Canucks, refused to give up a second-period lead in a gritty team win over the Rapid City Rush (24-30-4-1) Friday at Wings Event Center, 3-2.
Kalamazoo’s fourth line of Colson Gengenbach (1g), Evan Dougherty (2a) and Hunter Strand (1g) combined for four points and played a phenomenal defensive game, along with 33 Jonathan Lemieux (10-6-1-3) saves, propelled the K-Wings to victory.
Gengenbach (2) started the scoring for the K-Wings, depositing a rebound into the twine at the 12:15 mark of the second period for his second goal of the season. On the play, Dougherty (5) passed to Powell Connor (8), who fired a slapshot from the high slot that caromed off the netminder’s leg pad to Gengenbach on the right bend of the crease.
David Keefer (6) then banged a bar-down missile from the right circle to give the K-Wings a momentary 2-0 lead at the 1:09 mark of the third period. On the goal, Davis Pennington (30) passed to Andre Ghantous (18), who fed Keefer in the high slot for the goal.
Only 1:24 later, the Rush notched their first goal, bringing the score to 2-1.
That’s when Strand (14) deposited a goal-line present at the 9:20 mark to regain a two-goal lead. On the setup, Collin Saccoman (13) crossed a pass to Dougherty (6), who launched a shot from inside the blue line that deflected to Strand for the goal.
However, Rapid City found the back of the net at the 11:45 mark, but the K-Wings slammed the door shut the rest of the way out, killing off over two minutes of extra-attacker time for their 20th 1-goal victory of the season.
The K-Wings went a perfect 3-for-3 on the penalty kill, and the shot total was knotted at 35 each.
