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Dominating from the opening period, the Kalamazoo Wings used a 60-minute effort to conclude a three-game road swing by defeating the Trenton Titans 6-2.
Veteran wisdom paved the way for the K-Wings in the first period. Deflecting a John Kivisto slap shot 5:37 into the contest; Kory Karlander (9th) put Kalamazoo on the board. Also assisting on the tally was Prab Rai, who in his second pro game earned his first point of his career.
Just 44 seconds later, Darryl Bootland (12th) extended the K-Wings lead to 2-0 with a wrist shot from the slot that was setup with a behind the net pass by Trent Daavettila.
Celebrating his 100th career game, Justin Taylor increased his team-lead in goals scored by recording his 15th of the season; when he cut to the backdoor and tipped in a Nick Sirota pass 1:38 into the period.
On a five-on-three power-play less than two minutes later, Mike Matczak (8th) tied the team-lead for power-play goals by notching his sixth man-advantage tally of the season to push the K-Wings lead four goals.
Kalamazoo’s lead grew to 5-0 late in the second period; when Darren Archibald left a drop pass to Sirota for his 7th goal of the season.
Early in the third period, Randy Rowe (9th) broke the shutout bid scoring 58 seconds in the period with a power-play deflection.
Kalamazoo increased their lead back to five goals minutes later, with Taylor’s (16th) second of the night. Assisting of the goal were Eric Kattelus and Elgin Reid. The point of Reid’s second of the night and 100th of his career.
Ryan Hayes closed out the scoring for the Titans recording his 11th of the season 16:22 into the period.
Riley Gill stopped 29 shots to earn his 14th victory of the season, which established a new career-best for wins in a single season for the third-year pro.
The K-Wings will return to Wings Stadium on this Friday, January 27th with a 7:30 p.m. face-off versus the Cincinnati Cyclones on Culver’s Night and Frugal Fan Friday, featuring $1 Beers, $1 Pepsi and $1 Hot Dogs.
Tickets for all K-Wings home games are $12.90 and $16.90 for adults and only $6.90 for kids ages 12 and under. The price for all K-Wings premium night games (all colored ice games and New Year’s Eve game) are just $1 more. 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
