SAVANNAH, Ga. — The Savannah Ghost Pirates, proud ECHL affiliate of the Florida Panthers, fell 5–3 to the Toledo Walleye on Thursday night at Enmarket Arena.
Toledo opened the scoring after forcing a turnover on the forecheck, as Garrett Van Wyhe found the puck on the right side of the crease and tapped it in to make it 1–0.
The Walleye doubled their lead just over a minute later when Brendon Michaelian rifled a shot in from the left faceoff dot to make it 2–0.
Savannah cut the deficit in half with 12 seconds remaining in the first period when Jaxsen Wiebe collected the rebound of a Ryan Sullivan shot and backhanded it home for his first goal as a Ghost Pirate to make it 2–1. Josh Lopina picked up the secondary assist on the final goal of the frame.
Toledo restored its two-goal lead at the 6:32 mark of the second period when, after an unusual bounce, Brandon Kruse tapped the puck over to Ryland Mosley, who converted to make it 3–1.
The Walleye added another just 1:23 later when Riley McCourt ripped a shot into the top left corner from the high slot to extend the lead to 4–1, a score that held through the end of the second period.
Savannah pulled one back at the 7:20 mark of the third period when Dennis Cesana one-timed a shot from the right side to make it 4–2.
Toledo answered once again when Van Wyhe tucked in his second goal of the night to make it 5–2.
The Ghost Pirates responded less than a minute later when Matt Jurusik came out of the net to play the puck, but Savannah forced a turnover and Cristophe Tellier fired the puck into the open net to make it 5–3. That would be as close as the Ghost Pirates would get, as Toledo held on for the win.
Jurusik earned the victory for Toledo, stopping 35 of 38 shots. Vinnie Purpura made 36 saves on 41 shots for Savannah.
The Ghost Pirates return to action Friday night for Green Out Night, presented by Country Financial, against the Orlando Solar Bears. Puck drop is scheduled for 7:00 p.m. ET. The game will be streamed live on FloHockey and broadcast on Mixlr. Tickets and additional information about upcoming home games are available at ghostpirateshockey.com.
— GHOST PIRATES —
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