INDIANAPOLIS — The Indy Fuel took to the ice Friday night in a Central Division matchup against the Toledo Walleye. Matt Tomkins got the start in goal for the Fuel on Friday night. Tomkins entered Friday’s game with four straight wins to go along with a 2.41 goals against average and a .905 save percentage.
Kaden Fulcher got the start in goal for the Walleye on Friday. It was the first time that the Fuel had faced the 20-year-old netminder. Fulcher came into the game with a 7-2-1 record with a 2.74 goals against average and a .908 save percentage.
FUEL STARTING LINEUP
Matt Rupert – Ryan Rupert – Logan Nelson
Zach Miskovic – Josh McArdle
Matt Tomkins
The Walleye got off to a fast start in Indy as defenseman Ryan Obuchowski buried his second of the year on a nice feed from TJ Hensick. That goal came just 42 seconds after the opening puck drop.
Less than a minute later, Mathew Thompson got it right back for the Fuel for his fifth goal of the season. Defensemen Alex Brooks and Neil Manning got the helpers on Thompson’s first goal back from an injury.
The Rupert twins joined the first period goal scoring party next less than two minutes after the Thompson goal. Ryan Rupert ripped his fifth of the season home on a pass from his twin brother, Matt Rupert.
Kevin Dufour’s 11th of the season came on a breakaway pass from Thompson. The puck squeezed through Fulcher’s pads to make it 3-1 8:49 into the game.
Greg Wolfe got one back for the Walleye as he tallied his eighth of the season on a one-timer from Hensick.
Kevin Tansey capitalized on a Fuel turnover and evened the game up for Toledo as the 25-year-old wired home his sixth of the season while falling to the ice.
The most impressive play of the night, though, was not recorded on the scoresheet. Fuel winger Kevin Dufour chased the puck down from the opposite blue line to beat out Kelly Cup winning defenseman Matt Register to negate a sure-fire icing call.
The Walleye caught fire late in the third period, however, as they scored three goals in a matter of 1:54, including a penalty shot from AJ Jenks and an empty netter by Hensick. Dufour answered back with 54 seconds to make it 6-5 Toledo but the last-minute comeback fell short as the Walleye took their first game in Indy in the 2018-19 season.
Quotebook
- Thompson on his return from a minor injury: “It was good. [We] got a lot of chances. [Olivier Labelle] and [Dufour] definitely helped me out. We were able to get a lot of offensive zone time, which makes the game easy. It was only two games, so I didn’t feel too rusty or anything. It was easy to bounce back.”
- Thompson on his line mate Dufour’s speed: “He’s got next-level speed. It makes the game easy for me. You can put the pucks in certain areas and certain spots and you know he’s going to win those races. It makes the game easier for everyone around him and certainly easier for himself. He utilizes it well and he definitely did tonight.”
- Fuel head coach Bernie John on Tomkins’ play and the lack of help he has had: “None of that is on Tomkins. It’s all on everybody else. We’re not playing well defensively and we’re not doing the right things. We’re just getting away from our game. We make ourselves defend so much. We have the puck and instead of getting it to our forwards and getting it out, we want to try to make an extra D-to-D pass and then there’s a fumble and something happens along the boards or a bad bounce and now we’re defending in our zone and now we have to play in our zone for another 30-40 seconds. That’s not the way we play. We play pucks north and we just got to get it through [the players’] minds that that’s the way we play.”
By The Numbers
- 4 – Number of points for Thompson on Friday against Toledo
- 12 – Shots on goal for the Fuel after two periods
- 2 – Number of goals for Dufour and Thompson