Toledo Walleye suffer road loss in 3-0 shutout at South Carolina

2/9/2013

CHARLESTON, S.C. – The Walleye saw their six-game winning streak snapped tonight as they were shutout 3-0 by the South Carolina Stingrays.

Toledo outshot the home team 29-23 but Walleye goalie Kent Simpson gave up single goals in each of the three periods.

Toledo (27-18-4) also fell out of first place in the ECHL North Division and is now 14-11-1 on the road.

Simpson made 20 saves and now has a 13-10-3 record.

The Stingrays' Matt Beca jumped on a rebound at 17:51 of the first to beat Simpson for a power play goal.

South Carolina then got a break in the second period when Hunter Bishop threw a pass across the Toledo zone. The puck deflected off of the leg of Walleye defenseman Phil Oreskovic and past Simpson at 1:11 of the period to give the Stingrays a 2-0 lead.

Phil Mangan made it 3-0 at 7:21 of the third when he tipped a shot past Simpson.

The Walleye outshot South Carolina 11-4 in the third but could not crack goalie Jeff Jakaitis, who finished with 30 saves to get his first shutout.

“This is a very difficult place to play,” Walleye coach Nick Vitucci. “Like us, South Carolina is very strong between the pipes and defensively and we saw that tonight. This was the hardest stretch of the year and I am very proud of how hard this team played during it.”

Toledo completed the first leg of a four-game road trip. The Walleye play at Evansville on Wednesday and at Kalamazoo on Friday. They return home for contests against Kalamazoo on Saturday and Fort Wayne on Sunday.