Toledo Walleye win 2-1 over Indy, take 3-games-to-0 lead

The Toledo Walleye won a 3-1 decision over the Indy Fuel on Wednesday night, taking a 3 games-to-0 lead in the teams’ best-of-seven series.

Kyle Bonis scored 2 goals, A.J. Jenks scored an empty-netter, and Pat Nagle stopped 30 of 31 shots along the way.

The Walleye’s website posted a recap:

Walleye take commanding 3-0 series lead with win over Fuel

(Indianapolis, IN) – Kyle Bonis scored twice, and Tyler Barnes had two assists as the Walleye defeated the Fuel 3-1 on Wednesday night in Indy. Pat Nagle stopped 31 of 32 shots and is now 3-0-0 in the postseason. The Walleye lead the best-of-seven series three games to none.

Indy took an early 1-0 lead just 2:20 into the first period on a rebound shot that beat Nagle. Despite some good chances by the Walleye, Fuel goaltender, Etienne Marcoux, would turn aside all eight shots he faced, while Nagle stopped 12 of 13.

Toledo would dominate play in the second period, outshooting Indy 16-8, with Nagle turning aside all eight shots faced. Simon Denis sent a pass to Kyle Bonis, who would tie the game 1-1 with a power play goal at 6:18 of the second period.

Beau Schmitz set up Bonis, who went top-shelf for his second goal of the game at 8:08 of the final period to make it 2-1 Walleye. AJ Jenks sealed the deal with an empty net goal at 19:07 of the frame to give the final score of 3-1.

Fish Tales:

  • The Walleye are in Indy on Thursday for a 7:05 p.m. puck drop against the Fuel.
  • Nagle stopped 31 of 32 shots and is 3-0-0 in the postseason.
  • Tyler Barnes (1G, 7A) leads the Walleye this postseason with eight points in three games played.
  • Christian Hilbrich leads the Walleye with four goals in three games this postseason.
  • The Walleye killed off five penalties tonight and went 1/3 on the power play

BCSN.tv’s Twitter account posted .gifs of the Walleye’s goals:

Update: WTOL 11’s Jordan Strack posted a highlight clip as well:

Update #2: Here’s more from the Toledo Blade’s Mark Monroe:

On the decisive goal, Walleye defenseman Beau Schmitz lifted a perfect pass in mid-air from his own zone, over center ice and hit Bonis in stride. Bonis, who now has three goals and four assists in the playoffs, finished with a perfectly placed shot.

“It’s funny as the play was developing, I think we both knew what was going to happen,” Bonis said. “I saw him open up his blade and I just took off. I knew that was what he was going to do. We were laughing when we got to the bench because it was like a Titleist. It kind of just stopped and stuck. You just have to shoot it and it knuckled in.”

Walleye goalie Pat Nagle nearly single-handedly kept his team in the game with 12 saves, including a few stellar stops, on 13 shots in the opening period. Nagle finished with 31 saves before a crowd of 2,404.

“We didn’t come out strong,” Walleye coach Dan Watson said. “But again we’ve got Nags back there for us, who stands up tall. Then we got into our game plan. Part of that is wearing them down. They were tired in the third period and we capitalized on a couple mistakes.”

A.J. Jenks added an empty-net goal with 52 seconds left in regulation.

Toledo can now finish the series with a sweep. Game 4 is set for here at 7:05 p.m. on Thursday.

“It’s enormous,” Nagle said. “Now we have a chance to close them out. It will be the toughest game yet [Thursday]. But each game, we’ve gotten stronger. I’m proud of our guys.”

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George Malik

My name is George Malik, and I'm the Malik Report's editor/blogger/poster. I have been blogging about the Red Wings since 2006, when MLive hired me to work their SlapShots blog, and I joined Kukla's Korner in 2011 as The Malik Report. I'm starting The Malik Report as a stand-alone site, hoping that having my readers fund the website is indeed the way to go to build a better community and create better content.