Evansville Icemen skate past Toledo Walleye 4-1

11/3/2012
BLADE STAFF

Toledo took on an ECHL expansion team for the second straight night and fell for the second game in a row to a first-year franchise.

The Walleye also took a 1-0 lead for the second consecutive game on Saturday night but Evansville scored the next four. The Icemen skated away with a 4-1 win before a crowd of 5,401 at the Huntington Center.

Toledo lost to the expansion Fort Wayne Komets 4-3 on Friday night.

The Walleye grabbed a 1-0 lead on Byron Froese's second goal of the season. Froese one-timed a perfect pass across the front of the goalmouth from Terry Broadhurst 3:13 into the middle period.

The marker came after a nice, sharp passing play from Willie Coetzee to Broadhurst to Froese.

But the Icemen tied it with a power play goal as Nathan Moon jumped on a rebound to beat Toledo goalie Kent Simpson with 12:29 left in the second period. It was Evansville's first shot on goal of the period.

Evansville then took a 2-1 lead on Todd Robinson's hard slap shot as he capitalized on a two-on-one breakaway with 5:52 left in second.

The Icemen added a third goal on Matt Gens' power play marker to seize a 3-1 edge with 8:49 remaining in the game. Dave Mahovsky added an empty net goal with 1:17 left.

Toledo went 0 for 5 on the power play. Simpson, who was pulled for the extra attacker with 3:32 left, finished with 24 saves.

The Walleye finished with a 35-28 edge in shots.

It was third game in three nights for the Walleye, including a road game at Wheeling on Thursday.

Toledo (4-4-1 overall) is now 2-2-0 at home. The Walleye won four of their first six games of the season but have now lost three straight.

Evansville (2-6-1) won for just the second time this season.

The Walleye play their annual morning game on Wednesday. The 10:35 a.m. contest against Fort Wayne is a “school apprecation day” and has drawn large crowds of young students each season.