TOLEDO – The Toledo Worley defeated the Kalamazoo Wings 5-2 on Saturday night at the Huntington Center in Game 2 of the Central Division semifinals of the 2024 Kelly Cup Playoffs.
what happened:
Sam Craggs' pure hat trick in the third period helped the Walleyes defeat the Wings at Labatt Hockey Night in Toledo.
Jan Bednar split the iron for walleye. Jacob Graves and Riley McCourt skated the blue line, while Brandon Hawkins, Trenton Bliss and Mitch Lewandowski led Toledo's attack.
Fellow rookie Jonathan Lemieux faced the visiting Wings' Bednar at the net. Michael Joyo and Chaz Redekopf played defense, while David Kiefer, Eric Bradford and Josh Passolt filled out Kalamazoo's front line.
The Walleye started scoring at 9:12 when Conlan Keenan put the puck in the net to give the Fish the lead. Hawkins and Michael Prapavesis helped with the initial count.
The Wings tied the score at 1-1 at 13:42 when Chad Nichuk scored a laser goal to put Bednar up by one. Passolt and Bradford assisted on the record.
At 18:08, Quinn Preston lit the lamp to give Kalamazoo a 2-1 lead. Nichuk and Colin Adams assisted on the score.
The Walleyes now trailed the Wings 2-1 at the end of the first period. Toledo outscored Kalamazoo 14-13 in the period.
Fisch came out of the locker room and quickly tied the score, and Lewandowski buried the rebound that spilled into the net to make it 2-2. Bliss and Hawkins assisted on the tying goal.
This ended a fairly quiet second frame with Wally and the Wings tied 2-2. Toledo outscored Kalamazoo 23-7 in the period and 37-20 through two periods.
After a back-and-forth start to the third period, Sam Craggs deflected the puck into the net to give the Walleye a 3-2 lead. Graves and McCourt assisted on the winning goal.
The Walleye made it 4-2 at 18:27 when Craggs hit a long rebound into the twine for his second goal of the night. Hawkins added his third assist of the night with a solo assist.
Craggs scored the winning cake just 15 seconds later with an empty netter at 18:42, completing his playoff hat trick and making the score 5-2. Keenan and Prapavessis added help to the empty netters.
The horn honked as the Toledo Walleye defeated the Kalamazoo Wings 5-2 to take a 2-0 series lead. Toledo outscored Kalamazoo 16-4 in the third period, totaling 53 shots to Kalamazoo's 24 in the Toledo Walley playoffs.
3 stars sponsored by Local 245:
- Sam Craggs (3G, GWG) – TOL
- Brandon Hawkins (3A) – TOL
- Jonathan Lemieux (L, 48/52 SV) – KAL
