KALAMAZOO, MI – The Kalamazoo Wings (17-18-3-3), proud ECHL affiliate of the National Hockey League’s Vancouver Canucks, couldn’t recover from a pair of second-period goals, 1:19 apart, and fell to the Bloomington Bison (22-16-2-2) on Friday at Wings Event Center, 5-2.
Colin Bilek (11) started the scoring for the K-Wings with a goal at the 2:13 mark of the first period. On the play, Collin Saccoman (7) crossed to Davis Pennington (21), who sent a bomb from near the blue line that deflected off the stick of Bilek in the left circle and floated over the netminder and into the twine for early advantage.
Unfortunately, Bloomington took the momentum with two second-period goals at the 12:46 and 14:27 marks. The Bison followed up by tacking a pair of goals in the third frame at the 3:59 and 9:25 marks.
Jackson Kunz (2) then narrowed the deficit to two with his second goal in as many games at the 15:59 mark. On the goal, Zach Okabe (21) sent a left-circle pass to Quinn Preston (20) at the goaltender’s right flank, who then crossed to Kunz opposite him for the bang-bang goal.
Bloomington then found an empty net at the 17:51 mark, bringing the score to 5-2.
The K-Wings and Bison continued to slug it out in another physical matchup, seeing each team pick up a pair of fighting majors. However, the two teams only combined for four power-play opportunities.
Ty Young (7-4-1-0) made 20 saves in the loss. The K-Wings took the shot total 28-26, went 1-for-3 on the power play and 1-for-1 on the penalty kill.