Teskey saves Storm s 3rd straight win

Toledo s Doug Teskey is beaten for a short-handed goal by Chad Theuer, but he stopped 25 others.

The only things missing were a blindfold and a cigarette.

Storm goaltender Doug Teskey faced a Dayton Bombers firing squad for the opening 10 minutes of last night s game at the Sports Arena and lived to not only tell about it, but also to propel Toledo to its third straight win and second in as many nights against the visitors.

One evening after making 28 saves and shutting out Dayton, Teskey thwarted point-blank shot after point-blank shot in the early going and then watched as his teammates responded to his efforts with a 5-2 win over the Bombers.

“The first 10 minutes, he stole the game for us,” Storm interim coach Nick Vitucci said. “If it wasn t for him, we probably wouldn t have been in the hockey game.”

The onslaught began with the Bombers second shot. Leading scorer Jason Deskins broke in all alone just 1:14 after the puck was dropped, only to watch Teskey do the splits and kick the puck aside.

“Boy, when we don t put things together, it sure gets ugly out there,” Teskey said with a laugh. “The first one warmed me up, got me in the game early.”

The next eight minutes kept him in it.

After Chad Theuer converted his breakaway - a short-handed marker at 3:45 that gave Dayton a 1-0 lead, the netminder made another save for the highlight reels.

Less than two minutes later, Teskey barely got his leg pad on a Bombers shot from the left faceoff circle that went through traffic. With the puck trickling past him toward the goal line, Dayton s Janne Jokila showed up in the crease for what appeared to be an easy conversion.

Out of position, Teskey dived on his stomach from his left to his right, and stuck the paddle of his stick across the crease, stoning Jokila s shot on the line.

The Bombers forward skated away with his head buried in his hands.

After that display of acrobatics, Vitucci called a timeout and delivered a message to his team.

“Bleep, bleep, bleep, bleep, bleep, bleep, bleep, bleep, bleep, said the bench boss when asked what he told his team. “Everything. Defense, get your heads out of your rears. Forwards, let s get back and help them. Everybody get more involved than you are right now. ”

The message was taken to heart.

Nick Parillo scored at 14:47 of the first to tie things up. In the second, Toledo broke it open on a marker from Rick Judson and power-play goals from Chris Gignac and Morten Ask.

Defenseman Jason Josza scored short-handed in the third to close out the Storm s scoring on a night when Teskey stole the show and the game.

“We came out really flat, Gignac said. “[Teskey] kept us in there until we woke up. He was great.”

Teskey finished with 25 saves, at least 10 of which were quality shots.

“That s why Doug Teskey s one of the best goaltenders in this league and why we re very glad to have him,” Vitucci said. “To hold us in games when we re not involved in them and then to steal one or two when we re really not involved in them ... .”

NOTES: Parillo, who also had an assist, sat on the bench for most of the third after taking a puck in the jaw. ... Toledo s Kyle Kos took a vicious, two-handed slash from Theuer in the second that was missed by referee Brian Thul. ... The Storm s Landon Bathe sent Bomber Jake Wiegand to the showers in the first with a clean check along the boards. ... The 16-17-4 Storm can move back to .500 today with a win over Cincinnati in the Sports Arena. Game time is 3 p.m.