Walleye Fall, 2-1
March 7, 2010 - ECHL (ECHL)
Toledo Walleye News Release
Toledo, OH - Toledo walked away with an incredible overtime victory last night, giving them a chance to close out the historical weekend with a three game winning streak. With a win over Charlotte on Sunday, the Walleye could trail the sixth seed Checkers by a point in the standings.
Last night's contest was as hard-fought as it was evenly played, and the first period of Sunday's game was much of the same. Both goalies were on their games, as Ryan Munce and
Alec Richards held the game scoreless through one, stopping 11 and 12 shots, respectively. Richards made a few incredible acrobatic saves to put an exclamation point on a hard-fought period.
The Walleye came out aggressive from the intermission, scoring a very early goal to break the tie. After consistent pressure held in the Checkers' zone,
Evan Rankin found a rebound and threw a backhanded prayer of a shot that was forced wide of the net. The shot, however, deflected off of a Charlotte defenseman and fluttered over the right shoulder of Munce only 31 seconds in to the second. It was Rankin's team-high 27th goal of the year.
However, Charlotte answered for two quick scores near the end of the period. After a hard shot by Jean-Philipp Chabot, the rebound was not cleared by the Walleye defense, and David Marshall, from the tip of the crease, collected the puck and lifted a top-shelf wrister over the defenseless Richards to even the game at 13:10.
Just over a minute later, an errant turnover in the walleye zone led to a three-on-one breakout for the Checkers.
Jonathon Carlsson took away the passing lane from the far side, but Daniel Tkaczuk found Matt Schnepke between the circles, who trickled a shot between the legs of a scrambling Richards for the 2-1 Charlotte lead taken into the third period.
"They just took advantage of our mistakes," Head Coach Nick Vitucci said. "We were out of position and, when you leave your goaltender helpless, it's tough to hold on to the lead."
Toledo limited the mistakes, as Richards blanked the Checkers in the final period and finished stopping 30 of 32 Charlotte shots. With 1:33 left, Toledo pulled Richards for the extra-attacker. However, the offense was not able to battle back for another late game comeback as Charlotte took the finale 2-1.
Season Stories
Historical Tribute : Prior to Sunday night's contest, former Toledo hockey greats were honored in another pre-game ceremony. After the introductions, the remaining championship banners were raised over the Lucas County Arena ice.
Following the Fish : After the sellout 7,084 on hand at Sunday's game, Toledo has welcomed 205,135 fans through the turnstyles at Lucas County Arena this season, becoming the first team in the league to pass the 200,000 milestone. This season, the Walleye have seen more fans than any other professional franchise in Toledo hockey history. The record was previously set by the 1977-78 Toledo Goaldiggers.
Also, the overall attendance for the weekend was the largest weekend crowd in franchise history.
Top Weekend Series Attendance Totals:
March 5-7 -- 22,545
October 16-18 --20,664
November 27-29 -- 17,450
January 8-10 -- 17,074
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