North Charleston, SC – The Toledo Walleye took down the South Carolina Stingrays, avenging the end of their own six-game win streak by snapping South Carolina’s seven-game win streak with a 4-3 shootout victory at the North Charleston Coliseum. Garrett Van Wyhe scored in the shootout to decide the game, Tanner Dickinson scored the game-tying goal in the third as part of his two-point night, Mitch Lewandowski scored just 24 seconds into the game (the fastest goal for the Walleye this season), Conlan Keenan scored a goal, and Matt Jurusik stopped all three shots he saw in the shootout (in addition to 22 of 25 shots in the game). 

How it Happened:

Toledo got the scoring started just 24 seconds into this game, a much-needed start to the game after last night’s result. Mitch Lewandowski got credit for it, his ninth of the season, with assists from Brendon Michaelian and Nick Andrews to put Toledo up 1-0.

South Carolina responded with a goal from Romain Rodzinski, his sixth of the season at the 3:54 mark of the first, tying the game at 1-1. Conlan Keenan re-took the lead with his fifth goal of the season at the 6:01 mark of the first, from Nate Roy and Will MacKinnon, putting the Walleye up 2-1. 

The Stingrays bounced back again, tying the game at two with a goal from Ludwig Persson at the 8:50 mark of the first. The scoring slowed and the 2-2 score held on until the end of the first period. 

Mitch Lewandowski was called for interference just 59 seconds into the second period, giving South Carolina their first power play of the game. Toledo killed that penalty off, but went on another penalty kill at the 4:26 mark of the second as a result of a tripping minor by Johnny Waldron. Toledo got some shots on the PK, but neither team scored with Waldron in the box. 

Ben Hawerchuk scored to give South Carolina their first lead of the night 9:30 into the second period, putting the Stingrays ahead 3-2 with his sixth goal of the season. Tanner Kelly was called for an unsportsmanlike conduct minor after the play, leading to another power play for the Stingrays. 

Toledo went to the power play at the 18:40 mark of the second as Johnny Waldron was tripped up by the goaltender Alexis Gravel. The second period came to a close with South Carolina leading 3-2 but 40 seconds left to go on the power play. 

That penalty was killed off, and Toledo went back to a penalty kill of their own as Tanner Kelly went to the box on an interference call at the 3:55 mark of the third. Ryan Hofer took a roughing penalty with 17 seconds left on Kelly’s penalty, negating the rest of South Carolina’s power play and setting Toledo up for a 1:43 power play at the conclusion of Kelly’s penalty. Neither team scored on their power plays in that sequence. 

Tanner Dickinson scored at the 9:51 mark of the third to tie the game, his 18^th goal of the season to push the game to a 3-3 tie. Johnny Waldron and Riley McCourt got credit for the assists on the goal. 

Ryan Hofer took a critical cross-checking minor with 38 seconds to go in regulation as South Carolina was building pressure in the Toledo zone, putting Toledo on the power play for the remainder of regulation. He was also assessed a 10-minute misconduct for his actions after the call. The Walleye didn’t score in regulation and 1:22 of the power play carried over into overtime.

The penalty expired without a score, and both Connor Mayer and Will MacKinnon collected roughing penalties with 41 seconds to go in overtime, still leaving each team 3-on-3 for the remainder of overtime. Toledo’s penalty kill was a perfect 4-for-4 on the night, and outshot the Stingrays 30-25. Neither team would score in OT, so the game was decided as follows in the shootout:

• First Round
  • SC: Kyler Kupka – NO
  • TOL: Denis Smirnov – NO
• Second Round:
  • SC: Dean Loukus – NO
  • TOL: Garrett Van Wyhe – GOAL
• Third Round:
  • SC: Ben Hawerchuk - NO

Three Stars:

1 – F Tanner Dickinson, TOL (1 G, 1 A)

2 – F Garrett Van Wyhe, TOL (Shootout-Deciding Goal)

3 – D Romain Rodzinski, SC (1 G)

What’s Next:

The Walleye have the day off tomorrow but will be back in action on Monday, March 16^th in Savannah to finish off the road trip against the Ghost Pirates. The team will look to build momentum from today’s game and follow up Friday’s win over Savannah. Puck drop for the Monday contest is set for 7:00 PM at Enmarket Arena.