BISON COMPLETE COMEBACK AGAINST WINGS
BISON COMPLETE COMEBACK AGAINST WINGS
By: Erik Konwinski, Bloomington Bison
Kalamazoo, Mich. – Hugo Ollas made 31 saves and the Bloomington Bison began erasing a three-goal deficit late in the second period before defeating the Kalamazoo Wings 5-4 in a shootout at Wings Event Center Wednesday.
The Bison gave up a rush on the near boards to surrender the game’s first goal just 52 seconds in. After each team completed successful penalty kills over the next few minutes, Bloomington found its first game-tying goal from Kyle Jackson at 10:34. Zak Karpa kept an offensive zone shift alive by blocking a dump attempt on the near wall before sending the puck to Mack. Mack then carried it to the slot on his backhand and found Nikita Sedov sneaking in from the blue line. Sedov’s release created a rebound for Jackson, and the leading Bison scorer slammed in his fourth goal in two games against Kalamazoo. Ollas made a key man-on-man save when a Wing broke in behind Bloomington’s defense from the faceoff circles in the final six minutes of the frame, and stood strong again on a penalty kill about two minutes later. The teams headed to the intermission tied 1-1 on the scoreboard and the Wings held a 12-7 shot edge through 20 minutes.
The Bison drew a hooking minor under two minutes into the second period, but the penalty was killed off. The best early chance came off the stick of a Wing and the home team took a 2-1 lead on its second shot of the stanza. Jesper Solomon-Frisell made a calculated poke check to negate an odd-man rush coming toward him but the Bison couldn’t clear the zone on the resulting scramble and Kalamazoo scored at 5:56. Ollas was tested again and made an alert save off a faceoff play a few moments after the Wings took their second lead. The Bison completed another successful penalty kill past the halfway point of regulation and followed it up with a three-on-two explosion from Mack, Karpa and Sedov but the three were shut down. Ayden MacDonald and Daniel Tedesco were denied on back-to-back possessions and Kalamazoo took back control of the contest. The Wings jumped up 3-1 and then added another goal to its lead with 6:17 left in the frame. The third and fourth Wings goals were separated by just two shots. Two and a half minutes later, Bloomington drew another penalty but would not capitalize with the man advantage. Brenden Datema and Brett Budgell worked to set up MacDonald for his third goal of the season with just 15 seconds remaining to bring the Bison within two shots of tying the game again.
Early in the final regulation frame, Karpa continued to create issues for Kalamazoo, and he intercepted an up-ice pass to set up the third Bison goal. After Karpa sailed the puck in behind the net from neutral ice, Mack forced a turnover from the netminder to Jackson, who slipped in his second tally of the evening into an empty net from the side of the cage. The only penalty of the period was assessed to Kalamazoo at 8:04, and for just the second time in eight games, the Bison powerplay cashed in. Budgell tied the game 4-4 off a set up from Tedesco and Sedov at 9:58 and Bloomington held on to force overtime.
Ollas’s poise remained evident in the extra frame, and he stopped a breakaway chance with under three minutes left. He then added an acute-angle block with four seconds on the clock. Parker Gavlas looked to have cemented the comeback win with one minute and 42 seconds left, but the play was caused by a high stick, which was confirmed by a review. Through 67 minutes, the clubs remained deadlocked on the scoreboard and in lockstep in the shot column. Each team recorded 35 shots.
Karpa scored the only goal of the skills competition with a dangle and five-hole finish, and Ollas was a perfect three-for-three to secure his second straight victory in the crease.
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