The Toledo Blade’s Mark Monroe spoke with the Toledo Walleye’s players and coach ahead of Game 6 in Fort Wayne tomorrow. The Walleye face elimination in their second-round series heading into Tuesday’s game in Fort Wayne, but the Walleye believe that they can force a Game 7:
“Everyone is positive and upbeat,” veteran forward A.J. Jenks said. “We just have to go win a road game. It’s everything to us. We’ve been working since October and we’re not ready to hang it up yet. We’ve been through ups and downs. We’ve handled the adversity very well.”
The Walleye hope to force a Game 7 back at home Wednesday. Toledo has played in five Game 7s the past three postseasons, including a series win against the Komets in the division final round in 2015. Toledo went 5-1-0 against the Komets in 2016-17 and were 2-0 at Memorial Coliseum.
“We know we can get it done,” Jenks said. “It’s in our hands. If we go in there and do the right things and play the right way, we come back here for Game 7.”
Toledo went 0-3-1 in Fort Wayne in the 2017-18 regular season. But the Walleye split the first two games of this series in Memorial Coliseum, and had perhaps their best game of the postseason despite a 3-1 defeat in Game 4 on Friday.
“It will definitely be tough,” veteran Kyle Bonis said. “Fort Wayne is not an easy place to play, and that’s a good hockey team. But we’ll get some desperation to our game.”
The Walleye won eight straight on the road to end the regular season and have won 11 of their past 12 away from home.
“The last 12 road games, we’ve done a really good job,” coach Dan Watson said. “Our confidence is high, and there’s no reason it shouldn’t be. We won a game there [4-3 in Game 3]. We will have a good mindset. We will draw on how well we’ve played on the road.”
Empty net goal for Fort Wayne as I type this… Toledo down by 2 with 44 seconds to play.
Looks like the end of a great season for the Walleye.
Final, 4-2 Komets.