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PigOut
01-24-2009, 04:40 AM
Wings Website -
http://www.wingsstadium.com/news/2008/01-23_gamerecap_FortWayne.htm

KARDIAC K-WINGS

Glenn Detulleo's Three-Point Night Paces Kalamazoo in 5-4 Shootout Win

Mike Modugno-Director of Public Relations and Broadcaster

January 23, 2009

Kalamazoo, MI – The IHL doesn’t pay its players extra for overtime. But for the Kalamazoo Wings this season, a sure two points has been payment enough.

Lucas Drake’s tying tally with 53 seconds left in the third pushed the K-Wings and the Fort Wayne Komets beyond regulation, then Anthony Battaglia’s shootout winner gave the home club a 5-4 victory at Wings Stadium Friday night. The K-Wings’ last three victories have come in overtime or the shootout are they are now 5-0 in games that go more than 60 minutes.

Fort Wayne led 2-0 in the second period and then trailed 3-2 in the third before rallying for a one-goal edge until the final minute. The wild contest featured two power play goals, a pair of shorthanded markers and four lead changes.

The traditional rivals combined to play a furious first period that featured everything hockey has to offer – except goals. Nonetheless, the K-Wings and Komets produced countless end-to-end rushes, violent checks and more than a few quality saves.

Fort Wayne generated the better scoring chances in the opening frame, but the sure-handed goaltending of Kalamazoo’s Joel Martin and three lucky bounces off goalposts kept the game scoreless in the early going.

The Komets continued to charge the K-Wings net in the second, but when defenseman Jay Holladay went to the penalty box for tripping midway through the period, it seemed the home team would survive the onslaught.

On the resulting power play, a good save by goalie Nick Boucher on Kalamazoo’s Jason Robinson led to a two-on-one shorthanded break for David Hukalo and Mathieu Curadeau. Curadeau (16th) took a lead feed from Hukalo, got behind the defense and lifted a backhand into the top shelf for a spectacular icebreaking goal at 11:16.

The Komets continued to force the issue and were rewarded at 16:25 courtesy of an unassisted slapshot goal off the stick of Mark Versteeg-Lytwyn (6th).

Trailing by a pair, it only took the K-Wings a little over a minute to draw even. The hasty comeback was kicked off when Detulleo (13th) took a puck off the left boards into the offensive zone and bore down on the Komets’ cage. With Battaglia on right wing waiting for the setup, Detulleo instead walked right to Boucher’s doorstep and dumped it in at 18:24.

Then, at 19:43 and with Kalamazoo down a man because of a Blair Stayzer minor penalty, Battaglia drove into the Fort Wayne end with Detulleo (14th) as a sidecar to the right, waiting until the last moment to slide a feed to the captain for an open-net one-timer and a 2-2 score.

Mark Nebus (21st) slammed home a power-play goal from in front at 13:12 and the K-Wings were on their way to an apparent tidy come-from-behind victory. Fort Wayne made things messy, however, on goals 2:19 apart by Guy Dupuis (9th) and Konstantin Shafranov (12th) for a 4-3 lead.

But with Martin off the ice for the extra attacked, Drake (15th) poked home a loose puck from the side of the goal to force OT. Five scoreless minutes later, Battaglia scored to lead off the shootout and it held up as Martin turned aside all three shots in the tiebreaker.

Detulleo and Battaglia each enjoyed three-point evenings for Kalamazoo, while Curadeau and Hukalo matched those efforts on the Fort Wayne side of the ledger.

PigOut
01-24-2009, 04:46 AM
IHL/Game Stats -

http://www.pointstreak.com/stats/pro/boxscore.html?gameid=735012

PigOut
01-24-2009, 04:59 AM
Kalamazoo Newspaper -
http://www.mlive.com/kwings/index.ssf/2009/01/kwings_set_up_showdown_with_wi.html

K-WINGS SET UP SHOWDOWN WITH WIN OVER KOMETS

Pam Shebest | Kalamazoo Gazette

January 23, 2009

KALAMAZOO - A shootout win Friday night, set up a battle for first place in the International Hockey League for the Kalamazoo Wings, who had the crowd in a frenzy with their 5-4 win against the Fort Wayne Komets.

The K-Wings (24-14-0-0) took sole possession of second place and are just two points behind the Port Huron Icehawks (24-14-2-0), who lost, 4-3, in overtime to the Flint Generals Friday night.

The K-Wings travel to Port Huron tonight, then return to Wings Stadium to host the Generals at 4 p.m. Sunday.

"This was a big game for us," said Mark Nebus, who gave the K-Wings their only lead in regulation with a power-play tally 13:12 into the third period. "We could have dropped from second to fourth. This team's got character. We've come back on them three times from a 2-0 deficit."

With a large contingent of Komets fans among the crowd of 3,582, the building was rocking with each goal.

In the see-saw game, the Komets took a 4-3 lead with just 3:22 left in regulation.

With goalie Joel Martin pulled for a sixth attacker, K-Wings coach Nick Bootland called a timeout in the final minute.

With 52.4 seconds left, Lucas Drake powered the equalizer past goalie Nick Boucher to force the overtime.

"That's not exactly how I drew up the play," Bootland said. "I won't take credit, but the puck went in the net and that's what counts.

"I think we actually lost the draw, but Drake beat them to the puck. That's him going to the net hard an playing the price for us. It's good to see him back."

The game was Drake's first since returning from injury.

After the scoreless overtime, Anthony Battaglia, the first shooter in the one-on-one tiebreaker, put a backhander past goalie Nick Boucher, and that's all the K-Wings needed.

"I find it a little bit less pressure if you go first," Battaglia said. "Later on in the shootout, if you need a big goal, it gets tougher.

"I usually go to my forehand there, but I didn't think I wo uld get it so at the last minute, I went 5-hole."

The winger is now 3-for-3 in shootouts.

The Komets sent Rick Varone, Mathieu Curadeau and Guy Dupuis at Martin, who blanked all three and is now 3-0 in shootouts.

With Battaglia scoring first, "It takes a ton of pressure off," Martin said. "(Teammates) have been good in the shootout all year for me. I have a lot of confidence in them and I think they have a lot of confidence in me."

Martin had extra incentive to stop Varone.

"He scored twice on me the last time in a shootout (that went 14 shooters on Dec. 29)," Martin said. "They've got a lot of firepower."

The Komets scored twice in the second period on goals by Curadeau (shorthanded) and Mark Versteeg-Lytwyn, but K-Wings captain Glenn Detulleo answered with two of his own, the second a shorthander, in a two-minute span.

On his first, Detulleo, who is known more for assists than go als, kept the puck with a 2-on-1 with Drake.

"I looked quick and it would have been a really difficult pass," Detulleo said. "I decided to shoot one. It doesn't happen often, so it worked out. Maybe (Boucher) wasn't expecting me to shoot."

While the K-Wings were thrilled with the win, "We weren't really happy with our game overall tonight," Detulleo said. "I think we were pretty sloppy.

"Marty played great in the first period to keep us in there (The Komets outshot Kalamazoo 16-7 in the period) and Tags made a nice move to win it."

Said Bootland: "As a group, we've got to stop relying on (the goalies) so much. Joel Martin played outstanding tonight, he did a fabulous job. It probably should have been 4-0 in the first period for them, except for the way he played."

Although goalie Jason Tapp was the backup on Friday, he did make one glove save when the puck flew into the K-Wings bench.

"He saved me on the bench," Bootland said. "We had the hot corner tonight. We had three or four (pucks) fly out there tonight."

PigOut
01-24-2009, 05:09 AM
Fort Wayne Newspaper -
http://www.journalgazette.net/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090124/SPORTS0601/301249992/-1/SPORTS

SCORING WOES SPELL DOOM FOR KOMETS IN OT LOSS TO WINGS

Justin A. Cohn-The Journal Gazette

January 1, 2009

KALAMAZOO, Mich. – Maxime Gravelle missed a wide-open net. So did P.C. Drouin. Sean O’Connor hit the goalpost. Mathieu Curadeau shot one puck over an empty net and put another into the goaltender’s pads from point-blank range.

And so on, and so on.

The Fort Wayne Komets had numerous great-but-unsuccessful scoring opportunities in a 5-4 overtime shootout loss to the Kalamazoo Wings on Friday.

“It’s beginning to be an old story,” coach Al Sims said.

It certainly is for a Komets team that has been decimated by injuries, eight players were out of the lineup, yet controlled the bulk of the play.

“We outshoot everybody, outplay everybody and we don’t outscore everybody,” said Sims, who then pointed to the shootout in which his team failed to score against goaltender Joel Martin.

The Komets have scored on only 4 of 28 attempts in shootouts this season.

“We can’t score and it’s just magnified in a shootout,” Sims said. “We make these goalies look like they should be playing in the NHL.”

And that ruined what the Komets felt was one of their best efforts of the season, in front of 3,582 fans at Wings Stadium. Ryan Potts, grandson of Komets legend Reggie Primeau, was brought in as an emergency fill-in for the third time this season, and he played only a handful of shifts. Danko Mironovic saw only one shift after taking a puck to the face last weekend and losing two teeth.

The Komets (20-14-6) essentially played three men short, while pulling into a tie with Muskegon for third place.

“Right now, I think we’re playing unbelievable with what we’ve got,” Drouin said. “… With everybody we’ve got out, we’re playing some of our best hockey right now and it shows what kind of character we have.”

The Komets got second-period goals from Curadeau (short-handed) and Mark Versteeg-Lytwyn, but the second-place Wings (24-14-0) answered with back-to-back goals from Glenn Detulleo (short-handed) and one from Mark Nebus (power play).

Drouin scored on a power play, from 50 feet out, to tie it at 3 and Konstantin Shafranov’s wrist shot from the left circle put the Komets up 4-3 at 16:38 of the third period. But Lucas Drake forced the overtime by slipping the puck between goaltender Nick Boucher and the right goalpost.

The only shootout goal came from Anthony Battaglia.

“We’ve been feeling a bit snake-bitten,” said Drouin, after the Komets outshot the Wings 43-39. “But the good thing is that we are getting a lot of chances. … They’re going to start going in at one point. We’ve got to be patient and keep being positive.”