Walleye take 3-2 series lead over Nailers Toledo head home with chance to clinch on home ice

WHEELING, WV – The Toledo Walleye came into Games Four and Five down 2-1 in their playoff series against the Wheeling Nailers hoping to play again in Toledo at least one more time. They will get their wish. The Walleye won both games to take a 3-2 series lead after a chippy Game Five Saturday night in Wheeling winning 2-1 in exciting fashion to not only avoid losing the series on the road but now have a chance to win the series on home ice.

After Toledo’s dominating second period in Game Four Friday night when the Walleye outshot Wheeling 17-4, the Nailers returned the favor in the first period outshooting Toledo 11-2. Wheeling got the ball rolling offensively scoring at the 4:52 mark of the first after a bench minor for too many men led to Morgan Ellis’ shot from the point past Toledo goaltender Jeff Lerg, who was screened by a teammate and Nailer Chaz Johnson, who tipped the shot to take credit for the goal and a 1-0 Wheeling lead in the first period.

Toledo got on the board in the second period with a power play goal of their own when Justin Mercier scored for the second night in a row when he took a nice cross ice pass from Shane Berschbach, who was at the right faceoff circle, to Mercier at the left point and snapped a shot that went high over Nailers goaltender Eric Hartzells’ left shoulder to tie the game at 1-1.

After a slow start the Walleye played better in the second period outshooting the Nailers 13-10 in the second period and got better as the game went along.  At the nine minute mark of the third period, the turning point came when Toledo goaltender Jeff Lerg had to make the save of the game going from the left post to the right post stopping a certain goal on a wide open net bringing the fans out of their seats.

As what usually happens when a great save is made on one end of the ice, a goal is scored. A.J Jenks slide the puck from the slot area past Hartzell at the 14:52 mark and Wheeling was left to scratch their collective heads.

The Nailers put on a late surge but lost the game. The Nailers outshot Toledo 32-21 for the game, with each team scoring a power play goal. Lerg, who led Michigan State to a national championship in 2007 was the games’ first star of the game. Game Six is Tuesday the 28^th and Game Seven is Wednesday if necessary.