TOLEDO, Ohio – As the saying goes, it’s not how you start but how you finish, and the Toledo Walleye proved that once again Friday night at the Huntington Center. Toledo finished a furious comeback for a 4-3 victory over the Kalamazoo Wings thanks to some shootout heroics by Evan Rankin and Cal Heeter.
Just as Wednesday’s game began, Toledo found themselves in an early deficit. Kalamazoo’s Ben Wilson ripped a seeing-eye slapshot under the arm of Toledo’s Cal Heeter to put the Wings up 1-0 two minutes into the first period.
The Wings earned their first power play of the game halfway through the second period and cashed in a fortuitous bounce off the glass to go up 2-0, as Lane Scheidl pushed the puck into the open net. With four minutes left in the second period, Kalamazoo’s Tyler Shattock found the back of the net via a wicked wrister to put the Wings up 3-0.
The Walleye’s head coach, Dan Watson, must have lit a fire under his squad between periods because Toledo started the third period fast and furious. The Walleye finally solved the Nick Riopel puzzle in the Wings’ net, as an even strength goal scored by Tyler Sikura assisted by Dane Walters made it 3-1 two minutes into the period, and an Evan Rankin power play goal, his seventh of the season, made it 3-2 three minutes later. Toledo drew even, 3-3, after a booming slapshot off the stick of A.J. Jenks found the back of the net for his sixth goal of the season at the ten-minute mark of the period with assists being credited to Rankin and Beau Schmitz.
The two teams remained tied at the end of regulation, and then a five-minute overtime period couldn’t decide a winner, which meant a sudden death shootout was in order. Toledo’s Tyler Sikura and Evan Rankin, with quite possibly the dirtiest deke in ECHL shootout history, scored goals and Cal Heeter stood tall to make three saves to preserve a 4-3 Walleye comeback victory.
With Toledo Walleye release
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