INDIANAPOLIS, IND — The Kalamazoo Wings avenged their loss from last night against the Indy Fuel by responding with a 5-1 rout of their opponents during a road victory at the Indiana Farmers Coliseum on Saturday night.
After the Wings and Fuel combined for four first-period goals the night before in Kalamazoo, the opening frame in the second leg of the home-and-home was the polar opposite. The low score wasn’t due to a lack of chances, as the Wings fired 20 shots towards Eric Levine during the first, but the Fuel netminder stopped each try. Kalamazoo goalie Joel Martin routinely handled the nine shots that were fired his way by Indy, and the two teams played to a scoreless opening stanza.
Minutes into the second period, the Wings struck first after a heads up play from Lane Scheidl. With the puck on the tape of Charlie Vasaturo at the point, he fired a shot that missed the net wide, but Scheidl positioned himself perfectly to angle the rebound off the end wall and into the net.
Kalamazoo continued the offensive attack into the final minutes of the second period and their persistence in the offensive zone paid off. Scheidl got the puck towards the goal, and while Levine made the save, it left him scrambling to control the rebound, and Cam Darcy hunted it down and lifted a shot into the top corner to give the Wings a 2-0 edge.
Entering the third period with a two-goal cushion, the Wings had no intention of letting off the gas. Even while shorthanded early in the period, Kalamazoo found an opportunity to attack and took it. Josh Pitt and Scheidl worked up the ice on a two-on-one, and Pitt’s pass found Scheidl in front of the goal for a quick-strike tally that pushed the Wings’ lead to three.
Six minutes later, the Fuel broke up the shutout bid after crashing the goal of Martin. A long shot from Kenton Helgeson was stopped by the left pad of Martin, but the rebound was left in the crease and Jake Marchment won the foot race to cash in the second-chance tally.
Trailing by a pair and pulling Levine for an extra attacker, the Fuel attempted to close the gap, but Brian Hart outraced the Indy defense to negate an icing and slide the puck into the empty net.
15 seconds after Hart’s empty-net tally, Kalamazoo capped off their scoring barrage when Tanner Sorenson crossed into the Fuel zone and dropped the puck along to Pitt, who sailed a long wrist shot over an out-of-position Levine to seal a 5-1 Wings’ road triumph.
Kalamazoo is now off until Wednesday when it hosts the Florida Everblades at 7 p.m. at Wings Event Center.
Notes: Martin moved into sole possession of fourth place on the ECHL all-time career wins list… Scheidl has tallied back-to-back three-point games… Peter Schenider has points in five straight…Kalamazoo scored their tenth shorthanded goal of the season… The Wings finished the season series with a 2-2-0-0 record against Indy… Kalamazoo has scored five goals in back-to-back games.
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