FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

March 16, 2025

K-WINGS SOAR, EMPHATICALLY  SHUTOUT WALLEYE SUNDAY

Kalamazoo enjoys several incredible performances for huge victory over Toledo.

BOX SCORE

KALAMAZOO, MI – The Kalamazoo Wings (27-27-3-2), proud ECHL affiliate of the National Hockey League’s Vancouver Canucks, pulled away from the Toledo Walleye (38-14-7-1) early and never looked back Sunday at Wings Event Center, winning in shutout fashion, 5-0.

It was a phenomenal matinee matchup for the K-Wings’ second line, as the trio of Blake Christensen (1g-4a), Ben Berard (2g-2a) and Lee Lapid (1g-3a) were all on the ice for each of Kalamazoo’s five goals in the game. It was a new single-game career-high in points for both Cristensen (5) and Berard (4), while Lapid (4) tied his career-best mark set on Feb. 18, 2023 (0g-4a).

Jonathan Lemieux (12-16-2-0) had his best performance of the year as well, making a season-high 44 saves en route to his second shutout and first since Nov. 1. Lemieux had Zach Berzolla to thank for keeping the shutout alive as he pulled a puck away from the goal line in the second period.

Christensen (10) opened the scoring and his big game with a goal at the 5:23 mark of the opening period. Wyatt Wilson (2) earned his first point as a K-Wing as he sent the puck behind the net to Berard (15) in the left-wing corner, who placed a backhand feed on the stick of Christensen just below the left circle for the backhanded top-shelf finish.

Collin Saccoman (6) added a goal at the 18:04 mark. Christensen (16) left the puck behind Toledo’s net for Lapid (9), whose centering pass went off the skate of a Walleye defender and right to Saccoman charging down the slot to rip a one-timer that rang the left post on its way to the twine.

Then, Lapid (9) made it 3-0 at the 9:43 mark of the second. Berard (16) brought the puck over the blue line and found Christensen (17) heading into the right circle, where he swiveled to find the trailing Lapid in the left circle for the tally.

Berard (17) extended his goal streak to three games with a tally at the 14:18 mark. Lapid (10) hit Christensen (18) in the neutral zone to set up a 2-on-1 rush with Berard, with Blake feeding Berard to flick a wrister top-shelf from the bottom of the left circle.

Then, Berard (18) added another on the power play at the 18:02 mark. On the play, Christensen (19) hooked up Lapid (11) down low on the left side, and he sent a cross-slot pass to Berard for the finish from the bottom of the right circle.

The K-Wings went 1-for-3 on the power play and 2-for-2 on the penalty kill. Toledo took the shot total, 44-28.

Kalamazoo took five out of six points on the week, has points in 12-of-13 games and has climbed back to .500 for the first time since Nov. 22 (6-6-1-0). Berard also capped off his first three games back with eight points on the week (6g-2a).

The K-Wings face the Bloomington Bison (26-28-3-2) Friday at 8:00 p.m. (7:00 CDT) at Grossinger Motors Arena.

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The PAW Patrol / Pucks N’ Paws Game is coming up as Kalamazoo will battle the South Carolina Stingrays at 4:30 p.m. on Saturday, March 29 at Wings Event Center. The goal horns will be turned off and the barks are sure to be turned ALL the way up! Plus, the first 1,000 fans receive a K-Wings Dog Leash, the first intermission will feature the pup race, and stick around after the game for the PAW Patrol jersey auction.

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The Kalamazoo Wings are a professional hockey team located in southwest Michigan that has been a staple in the Kalamazoo, MI professional sports landscape since 1974. The K-Wings compete in the ECHL and are the AA affiliate of the National Hockey League’s Vancouver Canucks and the American Hockey League’s Abbotsford Canucks. Kalamazoo plays their 36 regular season home games at Wings Event Center from October through April.

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