Special Teams Fuel Indy To Shootout Victory Over Toledo

The Indy Fuel came into Tuesday night’s matchup in Fishers with the Toledo Walleye looking to gain two points in a tightly-contested Central division race.

They did, but had to work hard to earn it. After taking the Walleye to overtime, the Fuel prevailed 3-2 in a four-round shootout.

It was a back-and-forth battle until fifteen seconds left in the first period. Toledo struck first with a goal by Mitch Lewandowski to give the Walleye a 1-0 lead. Toledo welcomed back Matt Anderson after a stint in the AHL, and he got the primary assist. Brandon Hawkins had the secondary helper.

Indy outshot Toledo 10-6 in the first period despite giving up the lone goal.

At 4:19 of the middle frame, Sam Craggs took a tripping penalty which put the Fuel on the power play for the first time. They capitalized on it quickly with a power-play goal at 6:01 by Jarrett Lee. Owen Robinson and Nick Grima had the assists on the play.

Jordan Martin took the Fuel’s first penalty of the period at 14:05, a high sticking minor.

The Walleye scored a power-play tally of their own by Gallant to make it 2-1 Toledo.

Time expired soon after with Indy outshooting the Walleye 12-11 in the second, but being down 2-1. Anderson got his second apple of the night, while Colby Ambrosio stayed hot with his sixth point as a Walleye.

At 13:28 of the third period, Anderson sat for high sticking, which allowed the Fuel to get the game-tying goal by Kevin Lynch just forty seconds into the power play. Robinson and Grima had the assists on that goal as well.

Both teams had a few good chances with the remaining time in regulation, but they each earned a point as the game headed to overtime.

The Fuel held possession early in the seven-minute overtime period and took a lot of shots before the three-minute mark, but Walleye goaltender Jan Bednar proved up to the task, stopping them all.

At 4:13, Bryan Lemos took a hooking penalty giving the Walleye an extra skater for two minutes, but the Fuel killed it off late in overtime.

Lemos headed back to the box with 32.7 seconds left, again for hooking. Gaudreau stood strong in net as Toledo dominated possession.

With 1.4 seconds left, things finally got chippy between these two teams as there was some pushing and shoving in the final faceoff before the shootout.

The skills competition went back-and-forth and ended as Indy secured the 3-2 win in the fourth round. Cam Hausinger got the puck in the net and the Walleye failed to respond.