Ryan Lowney scored 1:36 into overtime to lift the Walleye to a 3-2 win over the Cyclones inside Heritage Bank Center Sunday evening.
Cincinnati has points in three of its last four games and sit 25-20-3-0 on the season. The Walleye have won four straight and are 32-10-1-2.
- Justin Vaive started the scoring with a shorthanded tally over seven minutes into the first. Vaive picked up the puck for a breakaway during a 4-on-5 stretch, netting a wrist shot by Toledo's Billy Christopoulos.
- After giving up a shorthanded goal, the Walleye pounced on a power play opportunity early into the second period, with John Albert collecting a net front rebound to tie the game. Brandon Hawkins gave Toledo a 2-1 lead 11:48 into the middle period after getting a diagonal feed in center from Matt Berry to streak into the left wing side and fire past the glove of Michael Houser.
- The Cyclones found the equalizer 2:11 into the third period. After killing off a bench minor penalty for too many men on the ice, Justin Vaive crossed the Toledo line, then pitched a pass to Jesse Schultz for the veteran forward to score his 14th goal of the season and 998th professional point.
- Cincinnati had two power play opportunities shortly after tying the game, though they were unable to convert. The Cyclones outshot Toledo, 45-40 over the course of the game. Their 45 shots marked a season-high.
- The overtime dagger came 1:36 into the 3-on-3 session. After Matt Cairns and Lincoln Griffin saw an odd man rush broken up for the 'Clones, TJ Hensick picked up the puck and took it the other way. Cairns got back to block the initial shot, but the Walleye Captain grabbed the puck again, shuffling it to the high slot for defenseman Ryan Lowney to score his first goal of the season and subsequently give the Walleye the 3-2 win.
- Houser made 37 saves for Cincinnati, while Christopoulos turned aside 43 shots for the Walleye.
"It would have been nice to get two, but to still come out with one point against the first place team is good," said Cyclones Head Coach Jason Payne. "We just have to take care of what we can take care of, so hopefully we can keep doing our job and not be looking for other teams in this division to do us favors and lose games."
The Cyclones will spend the back half of their six game homestand hosting the Allen Americans, beginning with the first of three meetings Thursday night.
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