READING, Pa. — The Toledo Walleye allowed four second-period goals to host Reading before finishing short with a three-goal third period rally in a 5-4 loss.
Reading (21-12-1) built a 5-1 lead heading into the third period on the strength of goals by Michal Cajkovsky, a second from Ethan Cox, a power-play goal by Yannick Tifu, and T.J. Syner’s talley with two minutes, seven seconds left in the second period.
The Walleye (12-20-3) got a pair of goals from Maxim Shalunov in the first half of the third period to cut the deficit to two and Aaron Clarke’s marker with 9:41 left made things exciting as Toledo outshot the Royals 16-8 in the final stanza.
Reading won the shot battle 31-30 overall as Toledo goalie Mac Carruth made 26 stops in the loss while counterpart Carsen Chubak finished with 26 saves as well.
The Walleye went 0 for 5 on the power play while Reading capitalized twice in three chances.
Aaron Bogosian scored his first goal of the season in the second period to make it a 4-1 contest.
Joe Sova, Max Nicastro, Travis Novak, and Shalunov all registered assists in the defeat.
The loss was Toledo’s second straight to host Reading.