INDIANAPOLIS — For the first time in their opening-round playoff series against the Indy Fuel, the Walleye faced adversity and Toledo did not blink on Thursday night.
The Walleye twice trailed by a goal before rallying both times and ultimately authored a 5-3 comeback win in Game 4 of the Central Division semifinals. Toledo swept Indy 4 games to none in the best-of-7 series.
Brandon Hawkins scored two goals, including the game-winner with 4:51 left in regulation. His linemates Gordie Green (three assists) and Trenton Bliss (two assists) also had big nights before a crowd of 2,352 at Indiana Farmers Coliseum.
Sam Craggs scored for the consecutive game, and rookie Kirill Tyutyayev earned some redemption as he made up for an early mistake that led to a Fuel goal by tallying the tying goal. Veteran T.J. Hensick scored an empty net goal, his first of the series, with 34 seconds left for the final margin.
Goaltender John Lethemon gave up three goals in the first two periods, but made 10 saves on 10 shots in the third period to seal the victory.
“We knew this would be the hardest game,” Walleye coach Dan Watson said. “They came out extremely hard. So give them some credit. But our guys stuck with it and battled back. There's just a belief in our team, on our bench. It's incredible right now.”
The Walleye will advance to play either top-seeded Cincinnati or rival Fort Wayne in the Central Division finals. The Cyclones currently lead that series 2-1.
Toledo is the only ECHL team to sweep a first-round series this season. The Walleye, who have made back-to-back appearances in the Kelly Cup Finals, also swept Indy in the first round of the 2018 playoffs.
The host Fuel did not make it easy. The Walleye trailed 3-2 entering the final period when Tyutyayev tied it up at 3 at 13:06 of the third period. Green and Tyutyayev had a two-on-one breakaway, and Green dished to Tyutyayev who scored on a one-timer to knot it up.
Hawkins then scored his second of the game for a 4-3 lead with 4:51 left.
“With our energy in our locker room, everybody believed that we could win,” Hawkins said. “We knew we could play our game and take advantage of the little mistakes, and that's what we did.”
Green created a turnover behind the Indy net and centered the puck with a backhand pass in front to Hawkins, who slammed home his third goal of the series.
“It was the first time in the series we were trailing, and that's going to happen in the playoffs,” Green said. “To be able to battle and stay with it and continue to play our game was huge, and we ended up getting rewarded. We're confident in each other. We just kept chipping away.”
Indy pulled its goalie Mitchell Weeks, who made 29 saves on 33 shots, with 1:15 left, and the Fuel desperately pushed for the tying goal. Hensick put it away with the empty netter on an assist from Bliss, who had a team-high seven points in the four-game series.
Down one, Toledo killed off 1:32 of an Indy power play to start the third period. Lethemon, who finished with 18 saves on 21 shots, stopped four shots at the key juncture to keep the Walleye within one.
The game was tied at 2 after a wide-open first period as Toledo grabbed an early 1-0 lead before Indy responded with two goals.
The Fuel appeared to have scored an early power-play goal but it was waved off because of goaltender interference with 13:53 left in the first period. Moments later, Craggs, the former Bowling Green State University forward, gave the Walleye a 1-0 lead. Craggs created his breakaway by stealing the puck at the Indy blue line and sent a blast past Weeks.
Derek Daschke assisted on the Craggs' goal, and 16 Walleye players (out of 19) have recorded at least one point.
“It was a great group effort,” Hensick said. “Resiliency is part of the game, and we have a confident group. We feel like we're never out of the game, and we found a way. It just took a while to get the tying goal, but we got it. The goaltending was stellar and our big guys did the scoring.”
Indy tied the game at 1 with 11:46 left in the first as Chase Lang scored his first goal of the series. Seconds after a Walleye power play expired, Indy took a 2-1 lead on a goal from Colin Bilek with 2:57 left in the first period. It was the Fuel's first lead in the entire series.
Hawkins, Toledo's leading scorer during the regular season, tied it at 2 with 1:54 left in the first period on assists from Green and Bliss. Hawkins scored on a blast from between the circles after a feed from the corner from Green.
Indy scored the lone goal of the second period to take a 3-2 lead when Alex Wideman — who led the Fuel in scoring during the regular season — scored his first of the series with 6:24 left in the second.
The Walleye, who outscored the Fuel 17-7 in the series, will most likely not play again until next Friday, May 5.
“The rest is huge,” Hensick said. “We talked about closing it out to get some off days between games. It's a good feeling to get this done for the weekend.”
First Published April 28, 2023, 3:41 a.m.
