Toledo Walleye sweep Indy Fuel in double OT

It took two overtimes to do it, but the Toledo Walleye earned their 4th straight win over the Indy Fuel on Thursday night, with Christian Hilbrich’s goal at 7:45 of the 2nd OT earning Toledo a 3-2 victory.

Simon Denis and Austen Brassard scored the Walleye’s other goals, and Pat Nagle stopped 43 of 45 shots.

The Walleye’s website posted a recap:

Walleye sweep Fuel with double overtime thriller in Game 4

(Indianapolis, IN) – Christian Hilbrich scored at 7:45 of double overtime as the Walleye defeated the Fuel 3-2 in on Thursday night in Indy. Pat Nagle stopped 43 of 45 shots and is 4-0-0 in the postseason. The Walleye won the best-of-seven series four games to none.

The Walleye dominated play in the first period, outshooting Indy 17-8. Indy took a 1-0 lead at 4:32 of the first period with a shot that beat Nagle. Simon Denis (1st) tied with game 1-1 with a shot from the blue line at 12:50 of the frame.

Patrick MacCarron sent a shot to the net and Austen Brassard (2nd) gave the Walleye a 2-1 lead with a deflected goal at 15:36 of the second period. Pat Nagle stopped all eight shots he faced in the second.

The Fuel would tie the game 2-2 at 9:45 of the final period when the shot of Nathan Noel snuck past Nagle. Etienne Marcoux stopped all eight Toledo shots he faced in the third period.

Neither team would find the back of the net in the first overtime. Marcoux would turn aside 13 Walleye shots in the first overtime, while Nagle would stop all 14 shots he faced.

Christian Hilbrich (5th) found the back of the net at 7:45 of the second overtime to seal the sweep and a 3-2 victory.

Fish Tales:

  • The second round starts on Saturday, April 28 against TBD.
  • Nagle stopped 43 of 45 shots and is 4-0-0 in the postseason.
  • Tyler Barnes (1G, 7A) and Kyle Bonis (3G, 5A) lead the Walleye with eight points in four postseason games played.
  • Christian Hilbrich leads the Walleye with five goals in four postseason games played.

Update: The Toledo Blade’s Mark Monroe filed a with-quotes recap:

The performance of Nagle, who finished with 43, was key once again. He made 11 stops in the third period and 14 saves in the first overtime.

“Like we’ve seen every game has been so tight right down to the last second,” Nagle said. “It was another double overtime game where we were fortunate to come away with the win. This series could have gone either way. They fought as hard as they possibly could. But our guys did a great job every time we had a little bit of adversity, we found a way to get that jump back.”

The teams combined for 104 shots in a Game 4 that lasted nearly four hours.

“It’s a roller coaster of emotions,” Walleye coach Dan Watson said. “There are a lot of ups and downs. You have to keep your head in it no matter what happens. We talk about adversity and battling through that and we did that. It came down to will and determination and an opportunity and we got that on a line rush.”

The top-seeded Walleye took the best-of-7 series four games to none. But two games went to double overtime and the other were one-goal games in the third.

“It was a battle,” Watson said. “We knew they would give us all we could handle. I think it’s going to prepare us well for the next round.”

Continued

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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.