Walleye best in regular season but falls short in post season — 2016-17 Season Reviews — ECHL

A successful regular season turned into a nice, but shorter than hoped for East Coast Hockey League playoff run for the Toledo Walleye.

For a second straight year, the ECHL Kelly Cup Championship series had not Midwest-based teams as the Walleye advanced furthest, but ultimately made its exit in the Western Conference finals against the Colorado Eagles.

The Walleye was one of only four Midwest-based teams that qualified for the post season and with them all coming out of Central Division, it guaranteed only one would come out of the second round.

In total, nine of the 27 ECHL teams are based in the Midwest. Six of them competed in the seven-team Central Division with two others in the Mountain Division and one other in the South.

In the Central Division, the Walleye set the pace all season long on its way to a league-best 51-17-2-2 record and a 106-point season. However, the Walleye never really got a chance to coast to the finish as the Fort Wayne Komets (45-19-6-2) finished just eight points behind. The playoff race was settled before the home stretch but a great battle for third carried on to the final days, Quad City Mallards (40-28-2-2) taking the spot with a four-point margin on the Kalamazoo Wings (38-30-1-3) who settled for the final playoff spot.

After that was an 18-point gap back to fifth place, held by the lone non-Midwest-based team, the Tulsa Oilers (27-37-62) with Indy Fuel (23-42-3-4) another nine points back and Wichita Thunder (21-44-6-1) enduring a rough finish and falling into the division basement.

Two of the other Midwest-based teams saw homestretch runs fall just short.

In the Mountain Division, the defending regular season champion Missouri (Now Kansas City) Mavericks failed to make the playoffs this time around, it’s 33-30-4-5 and 75 points leaving it four shy of the Utah Grizzlies who grabbed the fourth and final playoff spot. Rapid City Rush (26-38-8-0) finished at the bottom of the seven-team division.

In the North Division, the Cincinnati Cyclones put together a solid 36-29-6-1 record for 79 points but that left the team three points behind the Orlando Solar Bears who grabbed the final playoff position.

In the post season, the Wings shrugged off a 26-point difference and provided the Walleye with all it could handle in the opening round. Ultimately, in a series that saw the home team capture wins in every game, nothing was settled until third period goals by Evan Rankin and Zach Nastasiuk broke a 1-1 draw and lifted the Walleye to a 3-1 win in Game Seven.

Meanwhile, the Komets needed just five games to dispatch he Mallards, moving on to the division championship series against the Walleye.

After the tough opening round, the Walleye jumped out to a quick start, capturing wins in the first three games against the Komets on its way to a 4-1 win in the series, advancing it to the conference championship.

The Walleye ran into an Eagles team riding some major momentum, having eliminated the Allen Americans in the previous round. The two-time defending Kelly Cup Champion Americans came into the ECHL with several other former IHL teams to start the 2014-15 season and the Eagles finally became the first team to eliminate the Americans after nine straight playoff series wins.

After winning in six against the Americans there was simply no stopping the Eagles, who brought the Mountain Division its third straight Kelly Cup, eliminating the Walleye in five games and then sweeping South Carolina Stingray in the championship series on its way to an impressive 16-4 post season record.

 Individual Leaders

The Americans might have been defeated, but the team still left its thumbprint on the season. Chad Costello led the league in scoring with an awesome 122-point total (33g, 89a), finishing 34 points ahead of Colorado’s Casey Pierro Zabotel (24g, 64a).

Shane Berschbach was the top player from a Midwest-based team, the 26-Year-Old Clawson, MI forward leading the Walleye with 86 points (18g, 68a).

Dane Fox, 23, from Ontario led the Mavericks and was ranked 11^th overall in the league with 76 points (34g, 42) even with rookie Mike Cazzolla, a 26-year-old forward from Ontario who also put up 76 (30g, 46a) for the Komets. Another rookie, Tylor Spink, 26, from Ontario also put up 76 points (28g, 48a) while twin brother and fellow rookie, Tyson was one point behind (33g, 42a).

In goal, Landon Bow, a 21-year-old from Alberta was ranked as the top goaltender of the season, appearing in 27 games with the Idaho Steelheads. He won 19 games and collected three shutouts with a 2.08 Goals Against Average and a .933 Save Percentage.

Jake Paterson ranked third overall for the Walleye, the 23-year-old Ontario native appearing in 49 games and winning 34 with seven shutouts. He posted a 2.28 GAA and a SP of .918.

The Cyclones had a nice contribution from Michael Houser, a 24-year-old goaltender from Youngstown, OH who played in 41 games and won 22 of them with a couple of shutouts. His 2.58 GAA and .919 SP stick out on a team that struggled in front of him at times.

Garrett Bartus, 27, from St. Charles, IL led the Komets with 21 wins in 33 starts, including four shutouts. He posted a 2.68 GAA and a SP of .905. For the Mallards, C.J. Motte, a 25-year-old goaltender from St. Clair, MI played 36 games and collected 20 wins with a 2.68 GAA and a SP of .917.

Awards

The Eagles claimed the Patrick J. Kelly Cup as playoff champs and Matt Register of the Eagles received the ECHL Kelly Cup MVP honors. The Eagles also collected the Bruce Taylor Trophy as the Western Conference Final winners while the Stingray picked up the E.A. ‘Bud’ Gingher Memorial Trophy as the Eastern Conference winners.

The Walleye earned the Henry Brabham Cup as the league’s regular season champ.

Costello of the Americans earned the league’s CCM Most Valuable Player Award.

Dan Watson, Coach of the Walleye was presented with the John Brophy Award as the ECHL Coach of the Year and Tyson Spink collected the CCM Rookie of the Year Award also named the John A. Daley Memorial Trophy.

The Eagles added a few other trophies as Riley Gill was named the Warrior Goaltender of the Year Award winner and Register collected the CCM Defenseman of the Year honor. Also, Joel Chouinard received the AMI Graphics Plus Performer Award as the season’s plus-minus leader.

The league’s Sportsmanship Award went to Berschback from the Walleye and Mike Embach of the Komets received the Community Service Award.

Brent Thiessen of the Mavericks was named as the Executive of the Year. Everett Fitzhugh from the Cyclones received the Excellence in Media Relations Award and the league’s Overall Award of Excellence was yet another to appear in the Walleye trophy case. Indy Fuel earned the Social Media Excellence Award.

Andrew Dvorak from the Mavericks was named the CCM Hockey Equipment Manager of the Year.

Changes

There are no new teams in the Midwest Region this season, but some other additions have made the set up a little different.

The Mavericks are no officially known as Kansas City rather than Missouri and with Worcester entering the North Division, the Cincinnati make the Central Division all-Midwest. The Cyclones move in while Tulsa slides over to the Mountain Division.

That means all nine Midwest-based teams will now compete in the Western Conference.