For the first time Sunday, Nick Grabko stood in goal as a member of the Toledo Walleye.
He left the ice a winner. In a potential first-round ECHL playoff preview, the Toledo Walleye continued their dominance over Bloomington with a 4-3 overtime victory.
Grabko, who recently completed his college career at the University of Alaska-Fairbanks, was signed Wednesday after playing one game in a short stint with the Idaho Steelheads. He made 25 saves on 28 shots in his debut in front of 8,172 fans at the Huntington Center.
“That was an incredible experience,” Grabko said. “Honestly, the fans were amazing. I got a couple days to watch a couple of games, so that was nice to get my feet under me and catch up to the speed of play.”
Grabko yielded two goals in the game’s first 11 minutes. But he gave up just one goal the rest of the way as the Walleye rallied.
Bloomington scored on its third shot of the game as Connor Lockhart beat Grabko exactly six minutes in. Grabko then yielded a second goal at 10:46 of the first period when Chongmin Lee scored on a Bison power play.
Grabko persevered, however, coming up with perhaps his biggest save near the midpoint of the third when he stopped Jonny Evans with the Bison on a two-on-one breakaway. He settled in nicely after giving up the two early goals.
“This was the first game I've played in a couple of weeks. So you kind of just try to get your feet under you,” Grabko said. “This team can score goals. They're hard to stop. So that also gave me confidence.”
After climbing out of the early hole, the Walleye took the lead before giving up a tying goal late in regulation. In overtime, however, defenseman Jed Pietila scored the game-winner 1:02 in on an assist from Mitchell Lewandowski to give the Walleye their eighth win in nine outings against Bloomington.
Pietila took a quick feed from Lewandowski at the top of the right circle and blasted it by goaltender Kasimir Kaskisuo (36 saves) to electrify the sold-out crowd.
“I joined the rush, and Lewey kind of held up and passed over to me, and I kind of just walked in and ripped it. It feels real good,” Pietila said. “We've talked a lot about winning at home coming down to playoff time.”
The Walleye (41-15-9) lead the Central Division with 91 points, while Bloomington (28-29-6) is in the fourth and final playoff spot in the Central with 62 points.
Sam Craggs scored two goals and Lewandowski had three assists for Toledo. Defenseman Jalen Smereck also scored.
“Those two points are huge,” Walleye coach Pat Mikesch said. “We're creating a little more separation.”
Smereck had scored the go-ahead goal with 15:56 left in regulation when he smacked in his rebound off the post. But Bloomington tied it at 3 with 3:40 left on a tip-in goal by Brett Budgell.
Mikesch said his team wasn't focused on Bloomington as much as protecting home ice and hopefully earning it for the first two playoff rounds.
“We want to dictate things in our building,” Mikesch said of his team that went 2-0-1 in a weekend homestand. “We played a lot of good periods this weekend. You can't have an off period in the playoffs.”
After the Bison took the early two-goal lead, the Walleye out-shot Bloomington 11-1 and scored two unanswered goals to tie it at 2 heading into the first intermission.
Craggs scored both of the first-period goals, both on assists from Lewandowski. The first came on an even-strength goal when he deflected in a pass with 5:40 left in the first period, then the equalizer came with 3:27 to go when Craggs then tipped in a shot by Lewandowski for a power-play goal.
“We've had success against them and we watched video to build on what we did before,” said Craggs, who scored three goals on the weekend. “They made a lot of changes with their roster, though. So it's good to get a fresh look at them right before the playoffs because we might see them again.”
The Walleye had two 5-on-3 power plays in the first two periods, the first for 44 seconds and the second for 39. But they did not score on either.
Craggs scored just two seconds after their first power play had expired. Toledo finished 1 of 6 on the power play, and Bloomington was 1 of 5.
“It's nice getting those opportunities and it's nice to capitalize on them,” Craggs said.
The Walleye, who are 11 points in front of Fort Wayne for first place in the Central and two in front of Kansas City for first in the Western Conference, now have seven games left in the regular season.
Toledo enters a five-game road stretch, beginning with games Friday and Saturday at the three-time defending ECHL champion Florida Everblades.
“They are the king right now, so you've got to go in there prepared to play high-quality hockey,” Mikesch said.
First Published March 24, 2025, 2:03 a.m.
