Kalamazoo Wings rally from 3-0 down for an overtime point in their opener, then head to Reading before the last home opener at Wings Event Center

KALAMAZOO, Mich. — The Kalamazoo Wings opened their ECHL season Saturday by scoring three straight third-period goals to erase a 3-0 deficit at Bloomington, then lost 4-3 when the Bison scored 2:19 into overtime.

The point in the standings came from a burst of three goals in 9 minutes, 31 seconds, all by players new to the K-Wings this season, according to the team.

Bloomington scored twice 1:03 apart early in the second period at Grossinger Motors Arena in Bloomington, Ill., and added a shorthanded goal 3:42 into the third. Tyler Gratton, a former captain of the Utah Grizzlies, scored the Wings’ first goal of the season at 6:29. Stepan Timofeyev followed with a power-play slap shot from the blue line at 9:53, and Zach Urdahl tied the game at 16:00.

Goaltender Aku Koskenvuo stopped 32 of 36 shots. Rookie Konstantin Khremkin and Dylan Wendt each had two assists, and Timofeyev had a goal and an assist. Kalamazoo went 1-for-7 on the power play, killed all three Bloomington power plays and was outshot 36-30.

Up next. The K-Wings, the ECHL affiliate of the NHL’s Vancouver Canucks, visit the unbeaten Reading Royals at 7 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 24, and 3 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 25. They have no home games this week.

Home opener. Kalamazoo opens its home schedule against the Toledo Walleye at 7 p.m. Friday, Oct. 30, at Wings Event Center. The team is calling 2026-27 the building’s farewell season and the game the final home opener there, on the same date as the arena’s first K-Wings home opener in 1974. The first 1,000 fans receive a magnet schedule and a trucker hat. The next night, Oct. 31, is the team’s Orange Ice Halloween game against Bloomington, with costume contests for adults and children during intermissions.

The K-Wings and Walleye will also meet outdoors at Waldo Stadium at 3 p.m. Jan. 31, 2027, which the team bills as the first outdoor professional hockey game in Southwest Michigan history.

Sources:
Kalamazoo Wings, “K-Wings open 2026-27, off to Reading this week,” news release, Oct. 19, 2026, https://kwings.com/news/2026/10/k-wings-open-2026-27-off-to-reading-this-week
Photo: Michael Barera, “Toledo Walleye vs. Kalamazoo Wings January 2014 18.jpg,” Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped and color-adjusted, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Toledo_Walleye_vs._Kalamazoo_Wings_January_2014_18.jpg

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Tags: Kalamazoo Wings · ECHL · Hockey · Kalamazoo · Wings Event Center