LOVELAND, Colo. – At 3:07 of the third overtime period between the Toledo Walleye and the Colorado Eagles in Game four of the Western Conference Finals, Matt Garbowsky wristed the puck past Toledo goalie Jake Patterson to give the Eagles the 5-4 win.
Both teams showed great strength and resilience throughout the longest game of the ECHL Kelly Cup playoffs thusfar this postseason at 103-minutes of playing time.
Toledo started the scoring in the first period with Tylor Spinks beating Eagles goalie Lukas Hafner at 3:07, with assists from twin brother Tyson and Matt Caito for the early one-goal lead.
A little more than three and half minutes later Colorado would tie the game on Sergei Boikov’s one-timer, assisted by Cam Maclise and Hafner.
A J Jenks
Each team would add another first period goal with A.J. Jenks scoring at 13:27 to give the lead back to Toledo, only to have Luke Salazar even up the score three minutes later.
That pattern continued throughout the game as neither team was able to get more than a one goal lead or establish dominance.
In the second period a shorthanded breakaway from speedy Ryan Harrison led to the Eagles’ first lead of the game at the 2:33 mark. However, Jenks scored on the same man advantage for the Walleye at 2:57 to re-establish a tie game at 3-3.
Zach Nastasiuk re-took the lead for Toledo in the third period with an unassisted shot that slipped past Hafner at 7:27.
Colorado continued to battle to at least give themselves a fighting chance to get to overtime and were rewarded for their efforts at 17:29 when Casey Pierro-Zabotel broke through with a power play goal for the 4-4 tie, sending the game to overtime after the remaining 2:09 ticked off the clock.
Two full extra periods were played with both teams getting numerous chances with no results.
Matt Garbowsky
Eagles All Star representative and ultimately the All Star Game MVP Garbowsky, tallied the game winner at 3:07 into the third overtime period with a wrister that beat Paterson upstairs.
Hafner stopped 32 of the 36 shots he faced to take the 5-4 win.
Paterson was saddled with the loss while stopping 39 of 44 shots against.
Game five is set for a 7:05 start on Saturday at the Budweiser Events Center in Loveland Colorado.
Article and Photos courtesy of Terry Sanford for Prohockeynews.com
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