KALAMAZOO, MI – The Toledo Walleye grounded the red-hot Kalamazoo Wings for the third time in as many tries this season, scoring a pair of power play markers as part of a four-goal second period in a 6-3 victory on Wednesday at Wings Event Center.
The Walleye (18-5-2-0), who finished 2-for-4 on the man advantage, matched a franchise record by showing at least one power play goal in each of their last six contests. Greg Wolfe potted an empty-net goal and contributed three assists to collect first-star honors, while Bryan Moore added an even-strength goal and three helpers. Pat Nagle turned away 26-of-29 shots to improve his record to 11-3-1 as Toledo pushed its winning streak to three consecutive games and ended Kalamazoo’s (13-12-0-1) run of four straight victories.
The visitors outshot the Wings 13-9 during the opening period, but trailed by a goal heading into the first intermission as Chris Collins broke the deadlock at the 5:25 mark.
Toledo restored parity 4:13 into the second stanza when Moore and Wolfe combined to set up T.J. Hensick to extend the latter’s goal streak to three straight. A backhanded effort from Zach Saar put Kalamazoo back in front 1:29 later, but the Walleye fought back with three unanswered goals to wrap up the middle period. On Toledo’s first power play chance, Moore and Wolfe again provided the assistance as Kevin Tansey fired a shot from the top of the right circle past Ivan Kulbakov to knot the score at 2-2.
The Walleye showed no signs of slowing down, puling ahead when Moore reached double-digits at the 12:02 mark, before A.J. Jenks tallied what proved to be the game-winning goal on the man advantage at 17:32 to open up a two-goal cushion.
Kalamazoo refused to go away quietly, trimming Toledo’s edge to 4-3 as Collins tallied his second goal of the night with 14:19 to go in regulation. Limited to eight forwards for the bulk of the final frame while Ben Storm served a 10-minute misconduct, the undermanned Walleye kept their one-goal lead intact as time continued to tick away.
With second-string netminder Jake Hildebrand pulled for the extra skater, Kalamazoo eventually burned its timeout with 1:52 to go in the third. However, the strategy backfired six seconds later as Moore set up Wolfe for a shot into the vacated net to extend Toledo’s lead to 5-3. Shane Berschbach notched his 300th career ECHL point on an empty-netter of his own with 20 seconds remaining to wrap up the scoring.
Kalamazoo failed to convert on three power play opportunities. Kulbakov was tagged with the loss after blocking 25-of-29 shots through the opening 40 minutes, before Hildebrand stopped all 10 shots he faced in relief.
What’s Next:
The Walleye continue their four-game road trip on Friday as they take on the Indy Fuel. Puck drop from the Indiana Farmers Coliseum is scheduled for 7:35 p.m.
Three Stars:
1. Toledo – Greg Wolfe (empty-net goal, three assists)
2. Kalamazoo – Collins (two goals)
3. Toledo – A.J. Jenks (power play goal)
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