CORALVILLE, IA – Zach Jordan had enough of the Kalamazoo Wings recent woes, so much so he put his team on his back, and notched his first career hat trick in the K-Wings victory over the Iowa Heartlanders on Friday, 5-2.
Momentum was sustained right out the gate in this one, as Trevor Gorsuch turned aside two Iowa scoring chances in as many minutes to allow the K-Wings to find their skates.
The netminder’s calming presence then permitted Zach Jordan and Kyle Blaney to slingshot Kalamazoo into a 3-0 advantage before the home crowd could find their seats in Iowa. Just over 10 minutes in to be exact.
Jordan’s first came via a two-on-one cash in that was quarterbacked by Tanner Sorenson and Cody Corbett. The K-Wings points leader, Sorenson, streaked wide through the right circle and found Jordan wide open for the slam dunk in front of Iowa’s goaltender Trevin Kozlowski.
On the very next shift, just 29-seconds later, Kyle Blaney split the defense and buried the puck five-hole on Kozlowski. Greg Betzold’s assist was needle threaded perfection from just inside the blue line to push the score to 2-0.
Then, despite already pushing his points streak to 5-games, Zach Jordan wasn’t finished with his first period assault.
Jordan marched up the ice at the 9:59 mark – wristed one from the top of the right circle that looked to have clipped off the outstretched stick of the defender – and raised the water bottle unassisted to give the K-Wings the early 3-0 lead.
The Heartlanders added one in the second stanza, but it was Gorsuch making key save after key save again to keep the lead intact. Despite being down by two, Iowa commanded the shot total (25-15) going into the second break.
Kalamazoo refused to let this one get away and it showed it in the third. Logan Lambdin, assisted by Tanner Sorenson and Alex DeBrinket, extended his team lead in goals with a rocket from the point at the 2:15 mark to push the score to 4-1.
Iowa cut the lead to two with 6:32 remaining, and sustained heavy pressure with the extra attacker from the three minute mark on. Yet, the two players responsible for the K-Wings commanding position steadied the ship the rest of the way out.
Trevor Gorsuch kept the puck out, and Zach Jordan sank the empty netter for the K-Wings second hat trick of the season.
Jordan now has a point in each of the four games he’s played since returning from Cleveland, and Lambdin now has scored 11 goals since December 11.
Gorsuch finished the game with 37 saves in the win.
Tomorrow night, the two teams will run it back. Puck drop is set for 8 p.m. EST in Coralville.
THIS REPORT WAS WRITTEN ENTIRELY BY CHRIS CADEAU, THE VOICE OF THE K WINGS
