Kyle Buchanan scored four times against his former team and Jordan Hall tossed in seven assists as the Wings (3-3) picked up a huge home win over the Stealth (2-5) by a count of 15-9.
After the game Buchanan said “I had this one circled on my calendar… Tonight was a big one for me, I’m happy to get a win and obviously it’s nice against my former team.”
The Wings set the tone quickly, something they needed to do with the Stealth playing the night before. Chad Wiedmaier scored his first career goal with a missile of a shot to the top right corner of the goal. Buchanan came back two minutes later with a little dodge fake to beat Richards putting the Wings up 2-0.
Following the game head coach Blane Harrison said he’s “very happy” to have Buchanan on his team. “He had a great game but I”m not surprised, he”s done very well here for us…. right from day one we knew he’d fit into this team and he’s been a great asset.”
But Buchanan wasn’t finished. After Justin Salt put the Stealth on the board, Buchanan closed the first quarter out with two more goals as the Wings took a 4-1 lead into the dreaded second quarter.
It didn’t start off well as Cliff Smith and Brett Hickey scored 19 seconds apart to close the gap to 4-3. That would be as close as the Stealth would get.
Captain Brodie Merrill and Buchanan would hit the goal to extend the lead to 6-3. Neither team put a goal run bigger then two, but when the Stealth would take a step forward, the Wings would push them back two steps.
Pat Saunders got into the act by scoring his first two goals just 44 seconds apart to put the Wings up 8-4. Rhys Duch would score a beautiful crease dive goal to try and spark his team at 11:05, but Kevin Crowley put one in just 40 seconds later. Saunders would complete his hat trick by scoring with just three tenths of a second left in the half.
The Wings outscored the Stealth 6-3 in the second to take a 10-5 lead into the locker room after the first 30 minutes.
Garrett Thul notched his first of two goals just 53 seconds into the third. The Stealth tried to get a run going as Tyler Digby and Brett Hickey would tickle the twine at 1:04 and 1:18. But again, Thul marched back 16 seconds later to stop the run. The Stealth would close the third quarter scoring with another goal by Duch, bringing the Stealth closer 12-8.
The Wings defense would go on lock down in the fourth as Jordan Hall and Tracey Kelusky would get into the scoring column to put the Wings up 14-8 with under 10 minutes to play. Digby would score again for the Stealth, but Brett Manney would put the final goal on the board with an empty netter with three minutes to play.
Stealth head coach Chris Hall after the game said he was not impressed with defensive play of his own team.
Hall said, “We’re not playing well and the offense is a bit anemic to say the least, and our power play has been horrible the last four games. We’re giving up way too many goals, we’re not getting to the net so things have to change for us.”
The Wings were 3-5 on the man advantage and 3-4 on the man down. This was a total team effort and another hard 60 minute win.
The Wings will now have their final back to back set of games this weekend. They travel to face the Toronto Rock (2-3) on Friday night, then return home to face the undefeated Edmonton Rush (5-0) on Saturday night. Wing standout Jake Bergey will have his #66 retired and hoisted to the rafters to join #42 Tom “Hollywood” Marachek and #35 Dallas Eliuk.
