Kalamazoo Defeats Toledo

Heading into the Kelly Cup playoffs with a victory, the Kalamazoo Wings concluded the regular season with a 3-2 victory Saturday night at the Huntington Center against the Toledo Walleye.

A physical first period led to plenty of hits and a combined 20 minutes in penalties, but no scoring.

The stalemate ended early in the second period, on blue line slap shot from Steve Miller 3:53 into the period.

Responding late in the middle stanza, Trent Daavettila (18th) recorded the equalizer on the wrist shot that was setup by Darryl Bootland and Eric Kattelus Both Bootland and Kattelus extended their point streaks to four games with the assist.

Celebrating his 200th career game, Elgin Reid (9th) gave the K-Wings their first lead of the night scoring on the power-play 5:49 into the third period.

Toledo fought back with a power-play goal of its own, as Bryan Rufenach (13th) scored on a wrap around 15:05 into the period.

Following a face-off victory in the Walleye zone with less than two minutes remaining in regulation, former Walleye, Joe Charlebois (3rd) scored the game-winner with a slap shot from the point.

Held without a point, Nick Sirota’s nine-game goal and point streak both came to an end. Sirota has scored in 17 out of the K-Wings last 19 games.

Kalamazoo will begin the Kelly Cup Playoffs on the road against the Wheeling Nailers in game one of the Eastern Conference Quarterfinals on Tuesday, April 3rd at the WesBanko Arena.

The K-Wings will return home to Wings Stadium on Friday, April 6th at 7:30 p.m. versus the Nailers in game three of the Eastern Conference Quarterfinals.

Tickets for the K-Wings round one playoff games are $16.05 and $19.95 for adults, $15.05 for seniors (62 years and older) and military (with proper ID) and only $10.05 for kids ages 12 and under. Fans can save money by purchasing K-Wings single game tickets in advance because tickets purchased on the day of a game increase by $1.

Submitted by Mike Modugno