TOLEDO, Ohio — The Toledo Walleye are rolling. In their weekly release dated Monday, Nov. 9, the Walleye reported a perfect three-win week that lifted the team to 6-2-0-0, second place in the ECHL’s Central Division, and a three-game winning streak heading into a three-game road trip.
The week began with two wins at the Wings Event Center in Kalamazoo. Toledo beat the Wings 3-2 on Wednesday, Nov. 4, with Quinn Preston and Kyle Gaffney each recording a goal and an assist, Brandon Hawkins scoring, and Mitch Lewandowski adding two assists, according to the Toledo Walleye’s weekly release. The Walleye returned Friday, Nov. 6, and beat Kalamazoo again, 4-3, on Nick Nardecchia’s second game-winning goal of the year, with Marcus Crawford and Nick Andrews each collecting two assists.
The Walleye then came home and won their home opener Saturday, Nov. 7, beating the Fort Wayne Komets 6-4 at the Huntington Center. Reilly Funk opened the scoring 4:05 into the first period, Hawkins scored the game-winner, Chris Terry scored his first goal as a Walleye, Lewandowski posted a three-point night with a goal and two assists, and Andrews recorded another two-point night, the team reported. It was Toledo’s fourth straight win in a home opener.
Goaltender Jonathan Lemieux started all three games and won all three. Lemieux has now won each of his first six starts as a Walleye, becoming only the second netminder in franchise history to do so, according to the team. Cal Heeter holds the franchise record, winning his first eight starts in 2016-17. Lemieux was named the team’s Goaltender of the Week with a 3-0-0-0 record, 52 saves and a 3.01 goals-against average.
Lewandowski earned Walleye Player of the Week honors with one goal, five assists and six points in three games, finishing plus-3. His week included two assists in Wednesday’s win and the three-point night against Fort Wayne — the kind of all-situations production Toledo has leaned on through the season’s first month.
The home-opener win carried a couple of striking details. Toledo has gone 8-2-1-0 in its last eleven home openers, outscoring opponents 42-25 over that span with two shutouts, according to the release. The Walleye also scored a shorthanded goal in a home opener for the second straight season — Preston’s strike 4:24 into the second period Saturday — the team’s third shorthanded goal of the young season after setting a franchise record with 15 last season.
Toledo’s home form matters because the Huntington Center was a fortress a year ago: the Walleye went 20-9-5-2 at home last season, tied with Fort Wayne for the Central Division’s best home record, and owned the league’s best home power play at 29.8 percent, the team reported.
Toledo sports fans have had a good week beyond the ice, too — the Rockets’ basketball team rallied past Marshall 81-76 for its first win, and across town a UToledo researcher landed a $3.7 million grant to build a Lyme disease vaccine.
What we know — and what we’re still waiting on
What we know: Toledo is 6-2-0-0 and second in the Central Division, Lemieux is unbeaten in six starts, and Lewandowski leads the weekly honors, all per the Walleye’s Nov. 9 release. What we’re still waiting on: whether Lemieux’s streak survives a three-games-in-three-days road weekend, and whether Toledo can close the gap on first place in the division.
What happens next is a road swing entirely inside the division: Toledo visits the Wheeling Nailers on Friday, Nov. 13, at 7:10 p.m., the Fort Wayne Komets on Saturday, Nov. 14, at 7:35 p.m., and the Indy Fuel on Sunday, Nov. 15, at 4 p.m., with broadcasts on 1230 Fox Sports Radio and FloSports, according to the team. Three more wins would stretch the streak to six — and give Lemieux a chance to match Heeter’s franchise mark.
Photo: Michael Barera, CC BY-SA