Boise, ID (1/10/18)— Eric Sweetman scored his first professional goal and Cole Ully added two of his own, as the Idaho Steelheads (21-10-5) skated to a 6-2 win over the Kalamazoo Wings (17-13-3) at CenturyLink Arena on Wednesday night. The Steelheads earned their third straight win, and sixth in their last seven games at CenturyLink Arena.
Sweetman and Ully both posted three point nights, while Philippe Desrosiers made 20 saves to earn his 15th win of the season. Justin Parizek also scored to extend his goal-scoring streak to three games, with four goals in that span.
Parizek opened the scoring at 4:11 of the first period, getting his 16th of the season on a wrist shot from the right wing over the shoulder of Wings goaltender Michael Garteig. At 15:52 of the first, Alex Dahl extended the lead with his second goal of the season, out-muscling Kalamazoo defender Jon Jutzi in front of the Wings’ net after Connor Chatham had forced a turnover.
In the second period, Sweetman scored 28 seconds in with a left-wing shot off of a 4-on-2 rush, after taking a cross-ice feed from Ully. Five minutes later, Ully scored to make it 4-0 after intercepting a Mackenze Stewart pass in the Wings’ zone and racing in on a breakaway for his fourth of the season.
Idaho scored early in the third as well, with Ully scoring his second of the game on another breakaway. Sweetman flipped a puck out to the neutral zone from his own goal line, the puck skipping behind the Wings’ defense for Ully to scoop up and cruise in for a 5-0 Idaho lead.
Cody Corbett would expand the lead to 6-0 at 3:24 of the third after a long shift in the Kalamazoo zone, ultimately lifting a backhander from the slot past Garteig for his third goal of the season.
Kalamazoo scored twice in the third period, a pinball shot from Eric Kattelus at 8:14 from the left-wing corner bouncing past Desrosiers for his fifth of the season and a power play blast from Ben Wilson at 10:23 for his first goal of the year cutting the score to 6-2. The Wings have scored power play goals in ten of their last 12 games.
Steelheads defenseman Zach Bell earned his first fighting major of the season in the second period in a scrap with Wilson. The fight came after Corbett had gone after Aaron Irving for boarding Joe Faust earlier in the period.
Jefferson Dahl and Steve McParland both saw four-game goal-scoring streaks come to an end. Jefferson Dahl did have three assists for his third consecutive three-point game.
The Steelheads scored five goals or more for the third straight game. Their victory allowed them to keep pace with the Wichita Thunder in the Mountain Division, who also won on Wednesdaynight in Tulsa. Both teams are tied for second place with 47points.
The Steelheads and Wings return to action on Friday night at CenturyLink Arena. Puck-drop is scheduled for 7:10pm MT with the game available on 1350AM KTIK and seen on Cable One and ECHLTV.
With Idaho Steelheads release
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