KALAMAZOO, MI— Jake Slaker made teddy bears rain as the Kalamazoo Wings (11-8-0-0) breezed by the Indy Fuel (6-13-2-1) in the annual teddy bear toss game in a 5-2 victory on Sunday afternoon at Wings Event Center.
Slaker got the K-Wings scoring started 4:29 into the first period off a nice cross pass from Tanner Sorenson. The goal started a cascade of teddy bears thrown from the stands. Ten minutes later, Logan Lambdin sent a snapper from the left circle to make it 2-0 at the end of the first period.
With just under five minutes remaining in the second period, some great passing set up Sorenson for the third goal of the game. Indy would respond when Fuel Forward Spence Watson put one past to make it 3-1 to close out the second.
Watson would score again to open the third period in a 5-on-3 situation to bring the Fuel within a goal. Kalamazoo would kill the 5-on-4 penalty. The K-Wings would respond with a power-play goal of their own when Justin Taylor redirected a Slaker shot into the back of the net. Sorenson closed out the scoring with an empty-netter assisted by Slaker and Eric Bradford.
K-Wings goalie Trevor Gorsuch stopped 21 of the 23 shots he faced to earn his fifth victory of the season.
