New goalie stops 41 shots in big home win over Kalamazoo.
28-year-old goaltender Cody Reichard made 41 saves in his Evansville IceMen debut Saturday, as the IceMen defeated the Kalamazoo Wings 3-2 in front of 4,923 fans at the Ford Center in Evansville. The IceMen wore specialty jerseys promoting prostate cancer awareness and auctioned off those jerseys after the game, with proceeds donated to the Deaconess Foundation.
Kalamazoo goaltender Joel Martin kept the game scoreless in the early going with a huge point-blank save on IceMen forward Alex Wideman. Martin then stopped Evansville’s leading scorer, Tyson Fawcett, on a penalty shot.
After the Wings killed off an IceMen power-play, Kalamazoo capitalized on its first man advantage. After a Steve McCarthy shot from the point was deflected on goal, Tyler Shattock buried a loose rebound from the ensuing goal-mouth scramble. Martin stopped all 14 Evansville shots in the period and Reichard made 13 saves in the frame.
Evansville tied the game early in the second period when Ryan Penny finished a tic-tac-toe passing play on a 3-on-1 rush. Then Justin MacDonald scored his second goal in as many nights to give Evansville a 2-1 lead at 6:01 and the IceMen carried that lead into the third.
Daultan Leveille scored a power-play goal 3:26 into the final period, which turned out to be huge for Evansville, as Alex Mallet popped in a goal for the Wings with just under six minutes to play. The IceMen hung on to the 3-2 lead through a flurry of Wings chances at the end to preserve the much-needed win.
The IceMen travel to Anchorage this week for three games against the Alaska Aces. The team arrives in Alaska Wednesday and has Thanksgiving Day off, before games Friday-Sunday at Sullivan Arena.
