North Charleston, SC- The Kalamazoo Wings learned an important lesson on Friday night. If you give the defending Kelly Cup champion, South Carolina Stingrays, opportunities they will hurt you. The K-Wings allowed a power-play tally and then a blue-line turnover also proved costly in a 3-0 loss to the Stingrays.

 

A physical and open period of hockey was highlighted by two brilliant saves from Kalamazoo’s Jeremy Duchesne. Midway in the period, Nikita Kashirsky cross-rink pass to Trevor Bruess on a two-on-one appeared to be a headed for a certain goal until Duchesne came up with a post-to-post save to keep the contest scoreless.

 

In the waning moments of the first period, Duchesne kept up his heroics denying a breakaway chance from Gregg Johnson.

 

Goaltending dominance continued to be brought to the forefront in the second period. The K-Wings penalty-kill helped Duchesne eliminate all of South Carolina’s chances on a five-minute power-play that was created on a check from Darryl Lloyd, who earned five minute for charging and a game-misconduct.

 

After killing off the extended man-advantage, Kalamazoo received a power-play of their own; however, the best scoring opportunity was generated by Bruess. The forward was tripped on a breakaway, which led to a penalty shot.

 

Facing their first penalty shot of the season; Duchesne stacked the pads and turned aside Bruess’ shot to keep the eggshells on the scoreboard.

 

A power-play late in the second stanza from South Carolina finally led to the first goal of the night. Darren Reid (1st), who was recently reassigned to the Stingrays from the American Hockey League’s Hershey Bears, deflected a Zach Tarkir left-point shot giving the South Carolina a 1-0 advantage.

South Carolina put the game out of reach in the third, after a K-Wings turnover in their own zone, Jake Hauswirth (7th) snipped a shot from the between the circles to give the Stingrays insurance.

 

For good measure, Rob Ricci (14th) popped in an empty-netter with one-tenth of a second remaining to close out the scoring for South Carolina.

 

Stingray goaltender Shane Connelly stopped 39 shots to earn his first shutout of the season.

 

For Game Stats: http://echl.leaguestat.com/stats/official-game-report.php?game_id=7541                 

Kalamazoo will continue their four-game road trip with a 7:05 p.m. battle against the Stingrays tomorrow, Saturday, January 16th.   

The K-Wings will return to Wings Stadium on Friday, January 22nd with a 7:30 p.m. face-off versus the Cincinnati Cyclones on Culver’s Night. The contest on January 22nd will also be a Frugal Fan Friday, which features $1 beer and $1 hot dogs.

Single-game tickets for any of the K-Wings 36 regular season home games are currently on sale at the Wings Stadium Ticket Office. Ticket Office hours are Monday-Friday 10 a.m.-6 p.m. and Saturday 10 a.m.-2 p.m. For more information, call Wings Stadium Ticket Office during regular business hours at (269) 345-5101.

For more information about tonight’s game, please contact director of public relations/broadcaster Mike Modugno at (269) 349-9772 extension 220.

 

 

 

-www.kwings.com-

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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