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Kalamazoo Wings Preview: Back into the swing of things

Upcoming Games

Friday @ Brampton Beast 7:15pm

Sunday @ Brampton Beast 2:00pm

Wednesday Tulsa at Wings Event Center 7:00pm

Preview

After a looooong break, the K-Wings are back on the road as they head to Brampton for two games this weekend. Kalamazoo hopes to keep their perfect record going against the Beast — they’ve beaten them both times they have met up this season.

Following the two games in Canada, the K-Wings head back to Kalamazoo to take on the Tulsa Oilers for the first time this season. The Oilers, a Winnipeg Jets affiliate,  currently sit second in Western Conference with a 20-14-3 record. Phil Brewer leads them in points with 25.  In net rookie Jamie Phillips is 18-9 with .917 saver percentage and a 2.56 Goals Against.

Past Week

There was only one game last week for the K-Wings. They finished off 2016 by beating the Brampton Beast 5-3.  Joel Martin picked up the victory and he now sits tied with Georges Gagnon for the all-time franchise mark for wins at 196.

Kalamazoo got the scoring started five minutes into the game as Justin Taylor converted an Anthony Camara pass for his 13th goal of the season. Tanner Sorenson and Scott Heneger would add goals in the second period as they built a 3-1 lead after 40 minutes.

The two teams combine for four goals in the last period in a wild final period. Willie Corrin scored for Brampton to pull them within 1 goal 8 minutes in.  Kalamazoo held on to the lead and as the game wound down Tyler Shattock put the puck into an empty net with less than two minutes to go. Thirty seconds later Taylor converted on a great individual effort to score his team-leading 14th goal of the season.  Brampton would convert a power play with 45 second left to narrow the the gap to two goals.

Awards

Congratulations to Tanner Sorenson who was named as an alternate to the ECHL All-Star team.  Sorenson has played in all 32 games for the K-Wings this season recording 7 goals and 8 assists. The 2017 CCM/ECHL All Star Classic takes place over January 17th and 18th in Glens Fall, New York.

The Anchorage, Alaska native is in his second season with the K-Wings.

One Leaves and Maybe One Finally Shows Up

In the last recap/preview there was speculation that Syracuse might want to offer a PTO to Anthony Camara.  Yesterday, news broke that Camara had indeed signed a PTO with an AHL team, sadly it was not with the Crunch.

The St. Johns IceCaps (AHL affiliate of the Montreal Canadiens) signed Camara to a 25 game PTO on Thursday. The native of Toronto scored 9 goals and 17 points with Kalamazoo this season, spending most of the season on the top line.

It will be a blow to a K-Wings team that has, at times, struggled to put the puck in the net.  His nine goals was tied for second on the team behind Justin Taylor’s 14.  It will be interesting to see who slides into his slot alongside Tyler Shattock and Taylor.

Some of his offense could be replaced if (and it’s a very big if) Blake Kessel finally agrees to play for Kalamazoo.  The high energy defenseman was released from his PTO with the Milwaukee Admirals last week and according to the K-Wings, they are working with his representation to bring him to Kalamazoo.

Leaders

Goals: 14 – Justin Taylor

Points: 26 – Justin Taylor

Wins: 8 – Joel Martin

Save Percentage: .899 – Joel Martin

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