K-Wings fall to Beast 5-3

The Kalamazoo Wings (29-26-4-2) are currently in the playoff picture, but they aren’t doing much to secure their spot after a 5-3 loss to the Brampton Beast  (24-28-6-4) in a rare Tuesday night game at Wings Event Center.

The K-Wings are currently tied with the Kansas City Mavericks for the fourth and final playoff spot in the Central Division.  The K-Wings currently hold the tie-breaker over the Mavericks.

With the loss, the K-Wings failed to put any distance between themselves and the Mavericks as well as the Indy Fuel, who trail the two teams by a point.

In a back and forth game that saw the Beast skated out to a 1-0 first period lead on a power play goal by Alex Foster, the K-Wings answered back in the second period on a Lane Scheidl goal at the 2:51 mark.  The goal by Scheidl was his 13th of the year.

Answering back just under two minutes later, the Beast regained the lead on a Chris Leveille goal to make it a 2-1 game.

Before the second period ended, however, Josh Pitt brought the K-Wings back to make it a 2-2 game with his 29th of the year.

Taking their first lead of the game midway into the third period, the K-Wings seemed to be gaining momentum.  Scheidl struck for his second of the night to make it a 3-2 K-Wings advantage.

Matt Petgrave brought the Beast back with a goal minutes later to knot the game 3-3.

With just under three minutes to go, the K-Wings earned a power play and a chance to score the go-ahead goal, but a shorthanded goal by Brandon MacLean gave the Beast a 4-3 lead.  They added an empty net goal just over a minute later to seal the victory.

The K-Wings are off until Saturday when the host the Cincinnati Cyclones for the annual St. Patrick’s Day Green Ice Game.

By: Mark C. McGlothlen