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Mitten Hockey story card: Toledo Walleye, ECHL
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What the numbers say about the Walleye’s first eight games

Toledo’s first eight games, seven of them on the road, by the numbers: where the goals come from, special teams, and the crease.

Shaun
4–6 minutes
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The Toledo Walleye finally played in front of their own fans on Nov. 7, eight games and three weeks into the ECHL season. They head right back out this weekend, with stops at Wheeling, Fort Wayne, and Indy before Rapid City visits the Huntington Center on Nov. 18. That makes this break a good time to see what the season’s first stretch says about the Red Wings’ ECHL affiliate.

The short version: Toledo is 6-2-0-0 and was second in the Central Division in the team’s Nov. 9 release. The Walleye went 5-2 in seven road games before winning their home opener against Fort Wayne. Here is how the numbers break down.

The record and the margins

Toledo has scored 30 goals and allowed 23 in eight games, a plus-7 goal differential. Away from home, the Walleye are 24-19.

Close games have gone their way. Four of the eight were decided by one goal, and Toledo won three of them: 3-2 in overtime at Kalamazoo on Oct. 30, then 3-2 and 4-3 at Kalamazoo on Nov. 4 and 6. The one-goal loss, 2-1 at Fort Wayne on Oct. 31, was one of two defeats, both in Fort Wayne. The other was a 6-3 loss there on Oct. 17.

The clearest pattern is when the goals come. The team says Toledo has outscored opponents 25-14 in the second and third periods. Take that out of the season totals and the Walleye are 5-9 in first periods and overtime combined. In other words, Toledo has often spent the first 20 minutes chasing, then taken over.

Where the goals come from

Thirteen different players have scored Toledo’s 30 goals, and nobody has more than four. Quinn Preston and Tag Bertuzzi lead with four apiece, and Brandon Hawkins, Tanner Dickinson, and Reilly Funk have three each.

The points tell a similar story, with one name on top. Mitch Lewandowski, the Clarkston native and former Michigan State forward, leads the team with 11 points (2 goals, 9 assists) and was named the ECHL’s Player of the Week for Nov. 2-8. Among forwards, Preston (4-4-8) and Hawkins (3-4-7) are next.

The blue line is a big part of the attack. Defenseman Marcus Crawford has nine assists, tied with Lewandowski for the team lead, and his nine points are second on the club. Crawford, Cooper Zech (2-4-6), and Nick Andrews (0-4-4) have combined for 19 points from the back end.

That depth matters because the lineup keeps changing. Bertuzzi and Nolan Moyle spent part of the past week with Grand Rapids before returning to Toledo on Nov. 8, and Funk will sit out Friday’s game at Wheeling after a one-game ECHL suspension.

Special teams

Toledo’s power play is 8-for-40, or 20%. It started fast, at 4-for-18 through three games, and has gone 4-for-22 since. Hawkins has three of the eight power-play goals.

The penalty kill has allowed five goals in 29 chances, an 82.8% rate, and it has produced offense of its own. Kaden Bohlsen, Moyle, and Preston have all scored shorthanded. Add it up and Toledo has 11 special-teams goals (eight on the power play and three shorthanded) against five power-play goals allowed.

Two notes for the coming weeks. Wheeling’s penalty kill was 69.6% in the team’s Nov. 9 release, 30th in the league. And Toledo’s power play was 28-for-94 (29.8%) at home last season, so the November home games could help a unit that has cooled off.

The crease

Jonathan Lemieux has started six games and won all six, with a 2.49 goals-against average. His .889 save percentage is lower than that record suggests, and it has dipped. Lemieux stopped 68 of 74 shots (.919) in his first three starts and 52 of 61 (.852) in the three games of the Nov. 2-8 week, when Toledo still won every game.

What has helped him is how little the Walleye give up. Lemieux has faced 135 shots in 362 minutes, about 22 shots per 60 minutes. Toledo has also tilted the ice the other way at times, firing 54 shots in the Oct. 30 game at Kalamazoo and outshooting the K-Wings 24-6 in the first period on Nov. 6.

Carter Gylander started the two losses and faced 62 shots in 118 minutes. He is back in Toledo after his Grand Rapids stint, and his track record is strong: he is 40-20-10 with four shutouts in his ECHL career and helped the Walleye reach the 2025 Kelly Cup Finals. How the starts split between Lemieux and Gylander on a three-games-in-three-nights road trip is worth watching.

What to watch

The numbers point to three things. First, the slow starts: a team that is 5-9 in first periods and overtime has been relying on its finishing kick. Second, the power play, which needs to look more like its October self. Third, Lemieux’s save percentage, which has to climb if the shots against start to rise.

Toledo has answered most questions so far. The next six games, three on the road and three at home against Rapid City, will show whether the margins hold.

Earlier on Mitten Hockey: Walleye Game Preview: vs. Komets (Nov. 7) and Walleye Game Recap: at K-Wings (Nov. 4).

Sources

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