The Kalamazoo Wings handed the Salt Lake Golden Eagles a 5-4 loss Friday night and broke the Eagles' three-game winning streak.
With the loss, the Eagles fell to 38-23-5, and the Wings improved to 43-22-0.The Wings held a 2-1 edge after the first period as Ed Courtenay and J.F. Quintin scored goals. Salt Lake's Marc Bureau took a drop pass from Sergei Priakin to notch the first of his goals en route to a hat trick.
Kalamazoo came out in the second period and made the score 3-1 on Larry DePalma's long shot. Later on in the period, Bureau stole the puck from Wings' center Mario Thyer at center ice, skated in on a breakaway and beat Kalamazoo's goalie with a wrist shot from 10 feet out to make it 3-2.
It started to look good for the Eagles late in the second when Rich Chernomaz knocked in his 31st goal of the season to knot the game at 3-3 at the 18:10 mark.
The Wings spoiled the Eagles' comeback with two goals in the third; one by Paul Jerrard and the other by Quintin - his second of the game.
Bureau scored his third goal of the night on a 20-foot shot with 2:37 remaining in the game to complete the scoring. It was Bureau's second hat trick of the season.