K-Wings back to their winning ways

The Gwinnett Gladiators and Charlotte Checkers may forget to leave the welcome mat out for the Kalamazoo Wings the next time they come to visit.

After defeating the Gladiators by a 5-4 score on Saturday night, the K-Wings hit the road following the game for Charlotte, North Carolina where they downed the Checkers by an identical score on Sunday afternoon.

With the victories the K-Wings improve their record to 8-1-1-0 and remain in first place in the North Division by 4 points over the Toledo Walleye.  The K-Wings lead the entire ECHL with a 0.850 winning percentage.

Rick Cleaver scored 3 goals and had 2 assists while Mathieu Curadeau netted a pair of goals and added an assist to lead the K-Wings scoring machine over the weekend.   Curadeau’s goal on Saturday night proved to be the game winner for the K-Wings.

Coming up big in net on both nights, goaltenders Julien Ellis and Jeremy Duchesne each stopped 45 of the 49 shots they faced.  The K-Wings were outshot on Saturday 39 to 49 and 22 to 49 on Sunday.

Saturday night’s game saw the lead change five times before the K-Wings were finally able to claim victory.

Andrew Fournier and Rick Cleaver scored in the first period with the Gladiators sandwiching two goals of their own in between to tie the score 2-2 at the end of one.  The goal by Fournier was scored on a penalty shot while the K-Wings were short handed.

The K-Wings Tom Morrow and the Gladiators Pat Galivan traded goals in the second period to keep the scored knotted at three goals apiece.

Taking the lead in the third on a Scott Mifsud goal early on, the K-Wings Rick Cleaver tied the score just over a minute later, paving the way for Curadeau’s game winner giving the K-Wings a hard fought 5-4 win.

On Sunday the K-Wings had to hold off a late third period rally by the Checkers to preserve the win.

Julien Brouillette put the Checkers on the board early in the first period but the K-Wings Trent Daavettila erased the one goal deficit with his seventh goal of the year later in the period.

Exploding for three goals in the second period the K-Wings jumped to a 4-1 lead with goals by Cleaver, Bryan Jurynec and Curadeau.

Darryl Lloyd cushioned the K-Wings lead with his fifth goal of the season to give the K-Wings a 5-1 lead midway through the third.

Charging back into the game, the Checkers reeled off three unanswered goals of their own in a span of three minutes but failed to get the equalizer giving the K-Wings a 5-4 win.

The K-Wings return home to Wings Stadium for two games against the Cincinnati Cyclones this Friday and Saturday night.  Game time is set for 7:30 pm for both games.   Tickets can be purchased by calling the Wings Stadium Ticket Office at (269)-345-5101.

 

K-Wings News and Notes

Frugal Fan Fridays: This Friday marks the first Frugal Fan Friday at Wings Stadium.  Every Friday home game this season will feature $1 hot dogs and $1 beers.

On Call: The K-Wings are without the services of five players who called up to the AHL this past week.  Forward Darryl Bootland is on loan to the Manitoba Moose, goaltender Ryan Nie is on loan to the Portland Pirates, Will Colbert and Matt Jones to the Worcester Sharks, and David Sloane to the Adirondack Phantoms.

Six times over: Trent Daavettila and Sam Ftorek both have six-game point streaks.  Daavettila has 9 points (6 goals, 3 assists) while Ftorek has 10 points (1 goal, 9 assists) in the last six games.

Misc. Stats: Mathieu Curadeau has three game-winning goals this season…Rick Cleaver is tied for second in league scoring with 17 points…the K-Wings lead the ECHL with 47 goals scored in 10 games this season…the K-Wings are 2-1-0-0 at home and 6-0-1-0 on the road…four of the last five games have been decided by one goal, with three of those games ending 5-4.

Submitted by Mark McGlothlen