ECHL playoff road ends in Colorado for Toledo Walleye

The last Midwest-based team was eliminated from the East Coast Hockey League post season when the Toledo Walleye surrendered a 6-3 defeat against the Colorado Eagles at the Budweiser Events Center in Loveland CO on Friday (May 19, 2017).

The trip to Colorado was devastating for the Walleye who split the first two games on home ice at the Huntington Center in Toledo before dropping all three games played in on three consecutive days in Loveland, the first two in overtime.

The Walleye appeared on its way to getting back to the friendly confines of Ohio early as the team carried a 2-1 lead out of the opening period and was up 3-1 halfway through the second. But the Eagles scored the final five in this one, evening the score at 3-3 before the end of the second before putting it away with a trio of unanswered third period goals.

Tyson Spink had the Walleye on the board and leading the way 6:16 into the opening period with his seventh goal of the post season but Casey Piero-Zabotel tied it up about six minutes later for the Eagles.

Beau Schmitz fired his first of the playoffs with 3:23 to go in the first and Dane Walters added his fifth to extend the margin 8:01 into the second.

Alex Belzile’s 14^th of the post season started the Colorado rally with 9:13 to go in the second and Cam Maclise tied it up with 3:51 to go in the frame.

Julien Nantel scored his second game winner in three games, putting the Eagles in front to stay 1:29 into the third and Maclise fired his second of the game a couple of minutes later to pad the margin. Shawn St. Amant added the clincher into an empty Toledo goal with 44 seconds to play.

Kent Simpson needed just 22 saves to pick up the win in goal for the Eagles while Jake Paterson made 31 saves in goal for the Walleye.

The Eagles will move on to represent the West Conference in the Kelly Cup League Championship series against either the Manchester Monarchs or South Carolina Stingray.

The Walleye advanced out of the league’s Central Division with a hard-fought win in seven games against the Kalamazoo Wings in the opening round and then taking down the Fort Wayne Komets in five games in the second round.

The Komets advanced to the second round after taking its first-round set with the Quad City Mallards in five straight games.

Those four teams were the lone Midwest-based teams in the ECHL to reach the post season this year as both the Indy Fuel and Wichita Thunder failed to qualify out of the same division.

In the South Division, the Cincinnati Cyclones finished fifth overall, missing the post season by three points while the Mountain Division included the fifth-place Missouri Mavericks and seventh place Rapid City Rush.