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ECHL Toledo Walleye

Toledo Runs League Best Record To 12-1-1 With 4-2 Win Over Arkansas

November 13, 2002 - ECHL (ECHL)
Toledo Walleye News Release


(Toledo, Ohio) The Toledo Storm won their ninth game in nine tries this season at the Toledo Sports Arena, defeating the Arkansas Riverblades, 4-2, in the first morning game in franchise history. The Storm won their sixth consecutive game and ran their ECHL-best record to 12-1-1 in a game that started at 10:30 a.m. in front of a boisterous crowd of school-kids and regulars alike.

For the fourth time in a row, the Storm gave up the game's first goal, when the Riverblades got an early power play opportunity and made the Storm pay. Matt Pagnutti fired a snap shot out of the high slot that Storm goaltender, Doug Teskey, stopped despite heavy traffic in front. After a massive scrum for the loose puck, Jason Bermingham poked the puck in to give Arkansas a 1-0 lead at 1:58 of the first. 3:20 later, the Storm tied things when Miroslav Durak became the fifteenth Storm player this season to score a goal. Matt Eldred started the play with a perfect tape-to-tape laser out of the defensive zone to a breaking Mike Bayrack, who turned on the jets into the offensive zone on the right wing side. Bayrack stopped up short and dropped a saucer to the trailing Durak, who ripped a snap shot off the top of the left circle that beat Arkansas goaltender, Jason Saal, low stick side.

The Storm pulled away in the second with three goals; but the period started on a more ominous note, when the Riverblades were awarded 1:14 worth of a five-on-three power play. Despite immense pressure, the Storm killed off the front end of the two-penalty sequence and fired the puck the length of the ice just as Matt Eldred was coming out of the box. There was a race for the puck in the Arkansas defensive zone that was won by the Arkansas goaltender, Saal, but he fired the puck into the body of the charging Eldred, who somehow controlled the falling puck out of his gear and fired it into an essentially empty net at 2:24 of the second for the third short-handed goal of the season for the Storm.

Dale Junkin then scored back-to-back goals for Toledo to build the three goal lead. The first resulted with the Storm on the power play. Storm forward, Mike Bayrack, had the puck in the right circle in the offensive end, and, as the Arkansas penalty killers pressured him, he threw a nice saucer to defenseman, Grady Moore, at the left point. Moore immediately tap-passed the puck to Junkin, who was planted between the hash-marks and who turned and wheeled one low glove side on Saal to make the game 3-1 Toledo at 12:17 of the second. 3:05 later, Junkin scored his second of the game, when Mike Bayrack was able to keep the right wing point and found Alexandre Jacques floating in the slot. Jacques fired a low, hard snap shot on Saal, who made the stop but left the rebound at the right side of the net, where Junkin banged it home to make it 4-1.

In the third, the Storm played textbook protect-the-lead hockey; and it wasn 't until there was just 1:13 remaining that the Riverblades were able to pick up a power play goal from Jason Deskins, making it 4-2. But it would be too little, too late, as the Storm closed it out for their season-high sixth consecutive win.

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