The Toledo Walleye will meet the Wheeling Nailers in the Central Division Finals of the 2024 ECHL Kelly Cup Playoffs.

In the opening round of the playoffs, Toledo swept the Kalamazoo Wings 4-0, while Wheeling rolled past the Indy Fuel 4-1.

The Mountain Division Finals will feature the Kansas City Mavericks against the Idaho Steelheads. The North and South Division Semifinals have not yet concluded.

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Central Division Finals

No. 1 Toledo Walleye (48-14-9) Vs. No. 3 Wheeling Nailers (38-28-5)

Game 1 – Friday, May 3 at 7:15 p.m. ET at Toledo
Game 2 – Saturday, May 4 at 7:15 p.m. ET at Toledo
Game 3 – Wednesday, May 8 at 7:10 p.m. ET at Wheeling
Game 4 – Friday, May 10 at 7:10 p.m. ET at Wheeling
Game 5 – Saturday, May 11 at 7:10 p.m. ET at Wheeling (If Necessary)
Game 6 – Monday, May 13 at 7:10 p.m. ET at Toledo (If Necessary)
Game 7 – Tuesday, May 14 at 7:10 p.m. ET at Toledo (If Necessary)

Toledo And Wheeling Top Scorers

Toledo’s Brandon Hawkins had 40 goals (first in the ECHL) and 93 points (first in the ECHL) during the regular season, and he leads the Walleye in the postseason with two goals and eight points; Wheeling’s Jordan Martel had 35 goals and 58 points during the regular season, though that included 16 games with Utah. In the postseason, he has four goals and nine points.

What You Need To Know About The Toledo Walleye

There was no more impressive performance in the first round of the playoffs than that of Toledo, which dismantled the team that had dismantled the Walleye during the regular season. 

After losing 9 of 13 regular-season meetings, the Walleye outscored the Wings 18-8 in the sweep, allowing only two goals in each of the four games.

Toledo has won 18 consecutive games, while no one else in the league is riding a win streak longer than four games.

Hawkins, who was selected as the ECHL MVP on April 19, had the biggest goal of the Walleye’s season that night in Game 1 against the Wings. He unleashed a shot from the left circle and then dove to poke in the rebound of that shot in overtime, completing a 3-2 victory after Toledo trailed by two goals in the second period at home.

Toledo overcame deficits in Games 2 and 3, too, and that’s the thing with the Walleye – you cannot snooze for even a couple minutes against their fast-paced, opportunistic offense. 

Defensively, Toledo really has sharpened things as well, having allowed more than two goals only three times during the 18-game winning streak, and the Walleye haven’t allowed more than three goals at all during the stretch.

What You Need To Know About The Wheeling Nailers

The race for Central Division postseason spots was jammed up for the final eight weeks of the regular season, meaning the Nailers have been in playoff mode for some time. They didn’t really start firing on all cylinders, though, until about March 22, and they’re 8-5-2 since.

Getting forwards Evan Vierling, Lukas Svejkovsky and Matthew Quercia, along with defenseman Isaac Beliveau, back from the AHL after the regular season ended certainly changed the Nailers’ complexion as they faced Indy. Those four players combined for three goals and eight points in the upset of the Fuel.

Justin Addamo, a forward, was terrific in that series, too. He had three goals (two of them game-winners), nine points and a team-best plus-8 rating.

With Taylor Gauthier and Garret Sparks in the AHL, the pressure was on Wheeling goalie Jaxon Castor to man the net for the entirety of the first-round series, and he was excellent, going 4-1 with a 2.00 goals-against average, .931 save percentage and a 21-save shutout in the 3-0 victory in Game 4 in Wheeling, West Virginia. 

Gauthier, who was first-team All-ECHL during the regular season, hasn’t played since March 16 because of injury. If he appears in this series, which seems possible, that could drastically impact Wheeling’s chances of success, especially if Castor’s play drops off.

Wheeling, which missed the 2023 postseason, has had a long time to mull over getting swept by the Walleye in the 2022 Central Division Finals. 

Wheeling’s coach, Derek Army, who is in his fourth season, is good at making adjustments between and during games, which may give him a bit of an edge over Toledo coach Pat Mikesch, who is in his first season as a pro coach but already has done something he didn’t in eight years as a head coach in the junior-level USHL – win a playoff series.

Two Players To Watch In The Toledo-Wheeling Series

Toledo’s Riley Sawchuk may only be in his first pro season, but he’s established himself as a big-game player. 

Sawchuk had 25 goals and 52 points in 50 games during the regular season – that included six game-winning goals and limited numbers on special teams – and he continued his habits in the series victory over the Wings. 

In Game 1, Toledo faced a 2-0 deficit, before Sawchuk scored twice within the span of 5:04 to change the complexion of what became a Toledo overtime victory. 

Other players deservedly get the publicity in Toledo – be it Hawkins, Sam Craggs or Trenton Bliss – but Sawchuk is a player the Nailers absolutely won’t be able to snooze on in this series.

Wheeling has puck-moving defensemen who really can get things going in transition – such as Beliveau and Davis Bunz – but Justin Lee is the most fun to watch. 

As a rookie, Lee had nine goals and 33 points in 63 regular-season games, then he was magnificent against the Fuel with one goal, six points (including three assists on power plays) and a plus-7 rating. He’s also willing to do the blue-collar work in his own zone, which will be pivotal against the Walleye’s high-flying forwards. 

For Wheeling to have a chance, it’s going to have to be diligent on defense, smooth in moving the puck up ice and physical – all things in which Lee excels.

X-Factor For Toledo-Wheeling series

Special teams.

In the first round, Toledo didn’t get many chances to use its power play, which was ranked second during the regular season at 25.2% efficiency. Against Kalamazoo, Toledo was only 1 for 7 (getting its goal from Sawchuk).

Wheeling, meanwhile, was 6 for 21 (28.6%) on power plays against Indy, after it executed at 20.5% efficiency during the regular season.

Toledo is a more disciplined team than Indy, so Wheeling may not be able to scrounge out 36.8% of its scoring on special teams (Matt Koopman also had a short-handed goal), as the Nailers did in the opening round. 

But Wheeling plays a more aggressive game than Kalamazoo, so Toledo is going to have to expect a lot more work on special teams than it dealt with during the first round.

To top it off, both teams are dangerous in short-handed situations; they each had nine short-handed goals during the regular season.

Toledo Walleye Vs. Indy Fuel prediction

Toledo goalies John Lethemon and Jan Bednar have been playing well the past six weeks, but if the Nailers can get commensurate netminding, and if they start getting scoring from players who were relatively quiet in the first round, such as Quercia and Jordan Frasca, then this series will go longer than most expect. 

The teams, amazingly, met only four times during the regular season – Toledo was 2-1-1 – and three of those games were decided by a goal. I’d expect something similar in this series, with the Walleye winning in six games. 

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