Wings Nailed in shootout

The Kalamazoo Wings fought back to tie the score twice at the Wings Events Center Friday night, but ultimately surrendered a 3-2 decision in shootout against the visiting Wheeling Nailers in one of seven East Coast Hockey League games involving Midwest based teams.

All seven saw Midwest teams playing games against teams from outside of the region and most of they were close. Missouri Mavericks also went to a shootout at the Powerade Center, but prevailed in their game with a 5-4 win over the host Brampton Beast.

Toledo Walleye also won in extra time, taking the OT win at the Norfolk Scope against the Norfolk Admirals. In other games: the Cincinnati Cyclones dropped a 7-3 decision in its first of two game at the SNHU Arena in New Hampshire against the Manchester Monarchs; the Indy Fuel dropped a 3-2 decision at the Indiana Farmers Coliseum against the still undefeated Tulsa Oilers; Fort Wayne Komets shutout the defending champion Allen Americans 5-0 at the Fort Wayne Memorial Coliseum and the Rapid City Rush was doubled 6-3 against the Alaska Aces at Sullivan Arena in Anchorage.

Nailers 3 at Wings 2 (so)

Goaltenders Doug Carr of the Nailers and Joel Martin of the Wings were the busiest players in this one combining for nearly 90 saves — 45 for Carr and 43 for Martin. The goalies went on to battle through six rounds of shootout before finally deciding this one.

Josh Shalla of the Nailers and Justin Taylor of the Wings both scored in the second round and that was it until Ross McMullan ended it, giving the visitors first blood in a two-game weekend series.

After a scoreless first period Gage Quinney, a 21-year-old rookie from Nevada put the Nailers in front with his first professional goal. Eric Kattelus responded for the Wings about four minutes later and teams were even at 1-1 heading to the third period. Nick Sorkin put the Nailers in front again 4:07 into the third and it was Kattelus again for the Wings with 7:58 to play in the contest, sending it to overtime and eventually, the shootout.

Mavericks 5 at Beast 4 (so)

In Brampton, the Mavs opened a 2-0 lead in the first six minutes of the contest but trailed 3-2 before a late period goal evened things at 3-3 in a wild opening period.

Brampton grabbed its first and only lead with the lone goal of the middle period but Rocco Carzo evened it up for the Mavericks just eight seconds into the third with his goal.

In the shootout, Sam Povorozniouk, a 21-year-old rookie from Northbrook, IL had the Mavs in front with his second-round marker after scoring the first two goals of his professional career earlier in the game. Dave Vallorani equalized with one in the third round for the Beast. Lukas Lofquist, another rookie, from Sweden notched the game winner for the Mavericks in the sixth round.
The other Maverick goal came from Andrew Courtney and the Beast got goals from: Vallorani; Brandon Marino; Jordan Henry and Tim Billingsly.

Ville Husso (20:00 11/14) and Eamon McAdam (45:00 22/23) shared the work in goal for the Mavs while Bryan Pitton made 33 saves in goal for the Beast.

Walleye 3 at Admirals 2 (ot)

Walleye trailed this one 2-0 after a period but rallied all of the way back with second period goals from Jared Nightingale and Jacob MacDonald in the second period before Tylor Spink wrapped it up 45 seconds into the overtime period.

Nick MacNeil fired both first period goals for Norfolk, his first two of the season.

Cal Heeter made 23 saves to pick up the win in goal for the Walleye while Eetu Laurikainen turned aside 39 in got for the Ads.

Cyclones 3 at Monarchs 7

Cyclones and Monarchs traded goal through the first nine minutes, but the home side piled on another three to carry a dominant 4-1 lead out of the opening 20 minutes. Both teams added a single goal in the second and the host Monarchs fired two more in the final period before Shawn O’Donnell finished it off for the Cyclones with 7:14 to go, his first of the season.

Dominic Zombo fired his third of the year in the opening period for the Cyclones and the middle period goal came from Jordan Sims.

Monarchs got goals from seven different shooters including: Connor Hardowa, David Kolomatis, Justin Agosta, Alexx Privitera, Quentin Shore, Joe Diamond and Damir Sharipzyanov.

Michael Houser stopped 10 in the opening period in goal for the Cyclones before Mark Visentin took over, handling 18 of 21 in the final two periods. For the Monarchs, Sam Brittain picked up the win with a 24-save effort.

Oilers 3 at Fuel 2

The host Fuel failed to find a way past Jamie Phillips in the Oilers’ goal until the final period and by that time the visitors owned a 3-0 cushion.

But goals by Marek Tvrdon and Patrick D’Amico about three minutes apart made for an interesting second half of the period and the home team fired 14 shots at Phillips in the frame in an effort to pull even.

Oilers stayed undefeated at 6-0-0-0 with the win with goals from Christophe Lalancette, Danicke Paquette and Phil Brewer.

Phillips ended up with a 34-save effort while Jake Hildebrand handled 29 of 32 in goal for the Fuel who fell to 1-3-1-0 with the loss.

Americans 0 at Komets 5

The Komets recorded a rarity in this one — a shared shutout as regular goaltender Pat Nagle was forced to leave the game just 3:24 in due to injury. Nagle had three saves to his credit at the time and Eric Hartzell took over, playing the final 56:36 and stopping all 24 shots directed at him by the Americans in the only meeting between these teams this season.

Allen goaltender Riley Gill was also forced to leave early for the same reason, going to the sidelines at the 6:17 mark having surrendered a goal on five shots. Jamie Murray filled in from there and turned aside 36 of 40 through the remaining 53:43.

The early goal, scored by Mike Cazzola, was the lone tally of the opening period and the Komets piled on two more in both the second and third periods. Other Komets goals came from: Kyle Thomas; Mason Baptista; Jamie Schaafsma and Garrett Thompson.

The Komets boosted its league record to 4-1-0-0 while the defending Kelly Cup Champions slide back to .500 at 3-3-0-0.

Rush 3 at Aces 6

The Rush remain winless after falling behind 5-0 in the first 40 minutes at Anchorage salvaging some possible momentum with a 3-1 edge in the final frame.

League leading scorer Lindsay Sparks, fired his fifth and sixth goals of the campaign in the third period uprising and picked up an assist on the other goal, the third of the season for Brenden Walker.

The Rush put 11 shots at Aces goaltender Michael Garteig in the final 20 minutes after managing just 10 through the first two periods.

Peter Sivak scored his second and third of the season for the Aces with other Alaska goals coming from: Stephen Perfetto; Vladimir Nikiforov, Ben Lake and Tim Coffman.

Chuck Grant worked the first 40 minutes in goal for the Rush, stopping 25 of 30 before Kent Patterson came on for the third period, stopping five of six.

Saturday games

Several of the teams will finish off two-game weekends on Saturday night with the Cyclones staying on to play the Monarchs again; the Walleyes facing off in Norfolk a second time and the Rush will stay in Alaska for another meeting with the Aces while the Kalamazoo Wings travel to Virginia to wrap up a home and away weekend with the Nailers.

In other games: the Americans will move on to Indianapolis to play the Indy Fuel, the Quad City Mallards will try to end the season opening winning streak of the Tulsa Oilers on home ice.