TOLEDO, OH— Clay Witt made 33 saves on the way to his first career victory, as the Kalamazoo Wings defeated the Toledo Walleye, 4-3, on Sunday at the Huntington Center.
Taking only 4:02 to get on the board, the Walleye were propelled to an early lead by Evan Rankin. The Portage, Michigan native pounced on a loose puck to the right of Kalamazoo goaltender, Witt, and was able to chop it past the rookie netminder. 
Kalamazoo tied the game later in the period, as David Gilbert began a rush into the Toledo zone and dropped a pass to Evan McEneny. The rookie defenseman’s shot sailed wide of the goal, but Tanner Sorenson, who raced behind the cage, was able to angle the puck off the pad of Jake Paterson, ricocheting the puck into the net.
The Wings locked up a lead in the middle stages of the second period, using Sacha Guimond’s second goal in as many nights. Alex Mallet set the play up behind the Walleye goal, and fired a back-door feed to Guimond, whose initial try was cut off by Paterson. Guimond followed up his effort and wrapped the puck around the goal, finding an open space to tuck it in, giving Kalamazoo the advantage.
Toledo tied the game at two, just 3:16 later, courtesy of Rankin’s second marker of the night. Shane Berschbach finessed his way into the Kalamazoo end, and moved in on Witt, holding the puck patiently. The Walleye forward shifted to the backhand, and steered an effort to the goal that was stopped by the Wings’ netminder. However, the rebound went unmarked and Rankin was able to bury it into the goal.
Kalamazoo earned their lead back early in the third period, as Curtis Valk tallied his 13th of the season at the 1:46 mark of the frame. After the Walleye turned the puck over in their own end, Justin Kovacs sent a shot towards the goal that was initially stopped, but Valk deposited the rebound.
Maintaining the pressure, Kalamazoo established a game-high, two-goal lead less than four minutes later. Ben Wilson’s long shot from the right-side point was knocked down in front, where Scheidl was able to corral the puck, turn to his forehand, and fire it through Paterson.
Toledo remained aggressive and were able to claw back within a goal after a mad scramble in front of Witt’s goal resulted in Tyler Sikura taking advantage of an unoccupied puck and tapping it into the goal.
Even with Paterson pulled in favor of an extra attacker down the stretch, Witt denied all of the Walleye efforts in the final seconds as the Wings held on for a 4-3 victory.
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