The Trenton Devils arrived at Kalamazoo's historic Wings Stadium on Friday with a day-and-a-half of rest since their 4-2 comeback win over Cincinnati. Apparently not taking heart to their penalty-taking struggles earlier in the week, the T-Devils fell into a 2-0 hole early-on in the game. Brian McGuirk struck first 1:50 into the game after Justin Pender was sent to the box on an interference call.
At the half-way point of the opening period Andy Thomas was whistled for holding, which put K-zoo on their third power-play of the night. Ben Simon was the beneficiary of a scramble in front that allowed him to put the puck in.
The T-Devils managed to hold the Wings scoreless for 24:30 by playing old-fashioned "Devils hockey", but a point-shot from a Wing's defenseman and an uncontrolled rebound led to K-zoo's Sal Peralta firing a puck past Dave Caruso.
The game then became nasty moments later as K-zoo defenseman Mitch Versteeg hit Brett Wilson up high, dropping Wilson to the ice. Gord Burnett came rushing in to avenge the hit, which at the moment looked like it may have injured Wilson. Burnett got the better of Versteeg, who tried to get away but was forced to drop his gloves when the T-Devils defender backed him into the boards. Burnett landed most of his punches and seemed to have injured Versteeg who was hunched over in pain for a minute before going into his respective penalty box. Unfortunately for Burnett he was assessed 17 minutes in penalties for going after his antagonist; 2 minutes for instigating, 5 for fighting, and a 10 minute misconduct penalty.
The Wings then took advantage of two consecutive power-plays before the period was out. With T-Devil forward Mike Marder in the box for hooking Brian McGuirk found the net for his second goal of the night at 17:04. Then with 0:18 left in the second period and Kory Nagy in the box for holding, Ryan McGinnis pumped home a shot to make the score 5-0 in favor of Kalamazoo. This was also their fourth power-play goal of the night.
Unfortunately for the T-Devils they were unable to light the lamp the entire night, with Wings goalie Ryan Nie stopping all 36 of their shots. They did however spend significant time in the penalty box, 60 minutes worth of time, most of which were “nasty” penalties. 17 of those penalty minutes came at the end of the game when Myles Stoesz reacted to a high-hit from Darryl Lloyd. When Lloyd tried to skate away Stoesz threw off his gloves started throwing punches at him. But Lloyd managed to get away.
T-Devils defensemen Gord Burnett, who was involved in a fight earlier and Justin Pender, who was chomping at the bit to fight all night, used the opportunity to drop the gloves and go at it with the nearest Wing. Burnett successfully got Legault to oblige, however Pender’s intended victim also got away, thus earning him a 10 minute misconduct penalty for instigating.
With the loss the team drops to a record of 6-7-1-2 for 15 points which leaves them in third place in the ECHL’s East Division 4 points behind the Elmira Jackals and 6 points ahead of the struggling Johnstown Chiefs.
The T-Devils will remain in Kalmazoo for the rest of the weekend, playing the Wings again on Sunday afternoon at 4:00 PM. Once that game is complete the team will return home for four day break for Thanksgiving before traveling out to Reading to face the Royals at the Sovereign Bank Center on November 27th.
While Examiner.com will not be in Kalamazoo for the game on Sunday, you can find the score of the game at the ECHL's web site. Have a happy and safe Thanksgiving.
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