FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 8, 2021
K-WINGS REPRESENTED ON THIRD CONSECUTIVE STANLEY CUP CHAMPION
Tampa Bay Lightning and former K-Wings forward Yanni Gourde crowned back-to-back champions late Wednesday.
KALAMAZOO, MI – A Kalamazoo Wings alum will have his name engraved on the Stanley Cup for the third consecutive season, following the Tampa Bay Lightning victory in a decisive Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Final late Wednesday.
Former K-Wings forward Yanni Gourde lifted the fabled trophy for the second time in the last 10 months as the Lightning completed back-to-back titles in 2020 and 2021. Last September, Gourde became the second alumnus in as many seasons to play on a Stanley Cup winning team.
Goaltender Jordan Binnington became the first former K-Wing to lift the Cup when he backstopped the St. Louis Blues to the championship in 2019.
Gourde scored six goals and had seven points during Tampa Bay’s 2021 title run and has 187 points (80 goals, 107 assists) in 310 NHL games since debuting with the Lightning in 2015-16. He signed a 6-year, $31 million extension with the Lightning in November 2018.
The Saint-Narcisse, Quebec native scored 15 goals and had 34 points in 30 games during the 2013-14 season for the K-Wings, his last stint in the ECHL.
In addition to his time in Kalamazoo, Gourde played eight ECHL games with the now-defunct San Francisco Bulls. He also played 298 American Hockey League games with the Worcester Sharks and Syracuse Crunch.
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The Kalamazoo Wings are a professional hockey team located in southwest Michigan that has been a staple in the Kalamazoo, MI professional sports landscape since 1974. The K-Wings compete in the ECHL and are the AA affiliate of the National Hockey League’s Vancouver Canucks. Kalamazoo plays their 36 regular season home games at Wings Event Center from October through April.
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