On a night where head coach Tony Zawoswki seen his team out shoot the opposing team 46 to 29, Cole Pierce and his Kalamazoo Jr. K-Wings defeated the Springfield Jr. Blues 5-3 inside the Nelson Center in Springfield for a North American Hockey League regular season contest.
Pierce finished the night as the number one star of the game with his performance, in which he finished with two points from both scoring a goal -- as well as chipping in an assist as well. He scored the games first goal just 5:38 into the game, as it was listed as an unassisted score.
The K-Wings entered the first intermission with an impressive 2-1 lead after being outshot by the Jr. Blues by seven shots (16-9). Theo Tydingco scored to tie the game up at one each -- and then Kyle Gattelaro scored on a sick pass from Trevor Boyd with less than five minutes remaining, giving the visitors the lead.
Once the second period began though, Kalamazoo came out and got two quick goals to put the score at 4 to 1. Brennan Sanford and Danny Hamburg both scored within the first 5 1/2 minutes and took all of the air out of the 520 faithful fans inside the Nellie. Once it hit 4 to 1, Springfield continued to play a hard fought game, but the K-Wings survived a lot of scoring opportunities and had complete control the rest of the way through.
The third period started with Kalamazoo leading 4-2, and having a lot of momentum. Through the first 16 minutes of the period, both teams were physical and kept each other shut out from impressive performances from both Matt Leon of the Jr. Blues and Alex Okicki of the K-Wings inbetween the pipes. The period ended with a shot total of 14-10 in favor of Springfield -- and one goal from each team scored in the final 3 1/2 minutes, as both Robbie Payne of Kalamazoo and Alex Baskakov of the Jr. Blues each netted one between the pipes.
Springfield and Kalamazoo both had six power-play opportunties tonight as the Jr. Blues finished 1 for 6 with the advantage as Mike Fazio scored one on assists from Ryan Atkinson and Brett Skibba assisted him -- and the K-Wings finished scoreless with a stat line of 0-6.
Okicki finished the night with a victory as he made 43 saves for the K-Wings. Ryan Kellenberger made the start for Springfield on Friday night, but was replaced by Matt Leon who recieved the loss but made 14 saves. Okicki improved his record to 11-6-1 and extended his winning streak to six games now. Leon fell below .500 for the first time this season desite having a pretty good game. His record is now 7-8-2 and hes lost five straight decisions between the pipes.
There were eight players tossed and ejected from this game on Friday, for misconduct penalties, with both teams getting four players each. The Jr. Blues' Brett Skibba, Jeff MacFarland, Parker Johnson, and Alex Jaeckle all were tossed; while the K-Wings seen Sam Johnson, Taylor Burden, Christian George, and Danny Hamburg all get tossed.
The Jr. Blues and K-Wings will both be back inside the Nelson Center on Saturday night as Springfield will look to salvage this weekends series with a 1-1 series split. The puck will be dropping at 7 pm with the doors opening up at 6 pm.
Official Scoring Summary (from the NAHL's website)
First-(KAL) Cole Pierce (unassisted) 5:38; (SPR) Theo Tydingco (Brett Skibba) 13:25; (KAL) Kyle Gattelaro (Trevor Boyd) 15:31;
Second-(KAL) Brennan Sanford (Brendan Vetter, Cole Pierce) 3:53; (KAL) Danny Hamburg (Kyle Gattelaro, Taylor Burden) 5:17; (SPR) Mike Fazio (PP) (Ryan Atkinson, Brett Skibba) 7:26
Third-(KAL) Robbie Payne (Trevor Boyd, Mark Esshaki) 16:34; (SPR) Alex Baskakov (Nate Chasteen, Mitch Rogge) 19:56
Three Stars of the Game (from the official boxscore from the NAHL official website)
1. Cole Pierce --- (Kalamazoo)
2. Kyle Gattelaro --- (Kalamazoo)
3. Danny Hamburg --- (Kalamazoo)
Click the link to view the official boxscore/game stats for this game from the official website of the North American Hockey League (NAHL.com).
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