Toledo Walleye fall 4-0 to South Carolina
11/29/2013The Walleye put together a better effort tonight but the results were the same as Toledo dropped its second straight game.
The Walleye (5-8-2) hung right with the top team in the ECHL, South Carolina (13-2-3), for most of the contest at the Huntington Center. But the Stingrays scored three goals in the third period as Toledo lost 4-0 before a crowd of 7,033.
Goalie Hannu Toivonen, a former NHL netminder, got his start for Toledo and finished with 35 saves. Toivonen, who signed a contract on Tuesday, played in 61 games with the Boston Bruins and St. Louis Blues from 2005-08.
Both netminders in the game had spent time in the NHL. South Carolina's David LeNeveu played for Phoenix and Columbus. LeNeveu had 32 saves to get the shutout.
Chad Painchaud scored twice for the Stingrays, who shutout the Walleye for the second straight game.
South Carolina broke a scoreless deadlock when Painchaud scored on a solo breakaway with 2:22 left in the second period. A turnover in the neutral zone led to a pass from Wayne Simpson up to Painchaud who beat Toivonen low to his stick side.
Simpson then added a second goal with a shot from the slot with 11:06 left in the game on a nice backhanded assist from Lindsay Sparks.
Painchard scored again with 7:37 to go and then Jack Downing made it 4-0 just 19 seconds later.
Toledo's Emerson Clark (5-10, 181) got into a fight with Anthony Collins (6-4, 215) in the second period. Each players landed some good punches in the scrap.
The Walleye have now lost six of their last seven games.
Toledo's next three games are all on the road. The Walleye travel to Wheeling for a 7 p.m. game on Saturday. They play at Evansville on Thursday and Saturday. The team returns home on Dec. 11 for a three-game home stand.