WHEELING – Bryan Jurynec’s third period goal lift the Kalamazoo Wings to a 4-2 victory over the Wheeling Nailers Sunday evening at WesBanco Arena.
Wheeling’s Branden Defazio scored the game’s opening goal at 4:35 of the first on a give-and-go play into the zone. DeFazio fed the puck to Tim Crowder, who immediately returned to Defazio in the slot. The Clarkson University standout, flipped the puck past goaltender Riley Gill for the goal.
The Wings tied the game nearly five minutes later off the stick of their leading goal scorer. Andrew Fournier received a cross ice feed at the circle and hurled a wrist shot on the backside past Wheeling netminder Peter Delmas.
Nearly 24 hours after scoring his professional goal in his first career game, newcomer Chris Kushneriuk scored his second pro goal in his second game. Kushneriuk crashed the net after a shot from the boards and tipped the puck past Gill to give his club the 2-1 lead. However, Kalamazoo responded right back 1:11 later on the power play, as Brady Leisenring found the puck in a wild scramble in front and rolled it past Delmas for the goal to tie the game at two.
Wheeling created several quality scoring chances in the third period, but couldn’t crack the scoreboard. Bryan Jurynec picked up the puck off a feed in the slot and wristed the puck off a body in front which banked into the net for the go ahead goal. The Wings Trent Daavettila later added an empty net goal to seal the 4-2 victory.
With the win, Kalamazoo clinches a playoff spot on the Eastern Conference. The Nailers outshot the Wings 27-26 in the contest.
Wheeling opens up a three game road series with the Florida Everblades on Wednesday at 7:30 p.m.
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