WHEELING, WV – To say that the Toledo Walleye wanted to avoid losing in the first round of the ECHL North Division Semifinals to the Wheeling Nailers, a team who just barely made the playoffs to begin with, would be the classic understatement. No worries in that department at least for one night as Toledo defeated Wheeling 4-1 in Game Four of their best-of-seven series and tie the series up at 2-2. Game Five is Saturday night in Wheeling. Game Six and if necessary Game Seven is back in Toledo.
Toledo didn’t wait long to score. Wheeling took a penalty 2:02 into the game and six seconds later the Walleye won the faceoff back to the left point and swung it around to the right faceoff circle when Shane Berschbach found Troy Schwab cutting to the front of the net and one timed a shot past Nailers goaltender Eric Hartzell for an early 1-0 lead.
The second period didn’t get any better for Wheeling as Toledo scored when Berschbach and Schwab teamed up again, this time Berschbach was the recipient of Schwab’s’ nifty passing to score his third goal of the playoffs, scoring from the point to give the Walleye a 2-0 lead.
Toledo’s domination continued in the second period when the Walleye made the Nailers pay for a poor outlet pass in their own zone and set up with a one timer by Justin Mercier blasted past Hartzell for a 3-0 lead. Kyle Bonis put the game out of reach to put Toledo up 4-0.
Still Wheeling did manage to avoid the shutout when Sahir Gill’s blast from the point got past former college standout Jeff Lerg, all 5’ 6” of him, to finish off the scoring in the third period.
If you want to know just how bad things got for Wheeling the Walleye outshot the Nailers 19-4 in the second period alone, 26-10 after two periods, and 29-20 for the game. Both teams were 1-5 on the power play.
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