It certainly wasn't the best start tonight for the Toledo Walleye but it was perhaps their best finish of this young season. Toledo fought back from a two-goal deficit to add three goals in the final nine minutes of play and defeat the Cincinnati Cyclones 3-2 at the Huntington Center.
Up until those final nine minutes, the game was much of a quiet one. Cincinnati managed to take an early lead in the opening stanza but after that teams didn't see another goal until the third period. Mathiew Aubin scored for the Cyclones after he was fed a well-timed pass from Daniel Koger for the goal on Toledo's Carter Hutton.
For the Walleye, Joey Martin had a great chance in the second period shorthanded after he hustled for the breakaway but he was stoned by Cyclones netminder Chet Pickard. Though Cincinnati added another goal in the third period from Jonathan Hatzen, Martin had better luck later in the game.
Lifting the crowd of 6,181 to their feet, Martin netted his fourth goal of the season from a beautiful pass from David Toews. That spark got the rest of the Fish swimming and they went on to tie the game plus score the game winner in the last 3:07 of the game.
Adam Estoclet, sharing a line with Harrison Reed and Joey Martin while Evan Rankin plays in the American Hockey League, netted the equalizer and impressed with his puck-handling skills at the same time.
Walleye captain Kyle Rogers showed his own stick work prior to a quick backhand shot that sent the puck squarely into the net an put Toledo up with under two to play.
Cincinnati pulled their goaltender and pressured in the final moments but Toledo held on for the victory. With this win, they improve to 7-9 on the season, though according to Walleye coach Nick Vitucci, this win was more about building confidence in the young squad rather than earning the two points.
"This is a character win that this team's been waiting for," Vitucci said. "We're looking for strengths right now and every little milestone is something we can look back on. We can use this if we're ever down a couple goals. We've got this to fall back on."
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