Toledo, Ohio – Dryden McKay made 35 saves and the penalty kill was perfect but the Bloomington Bison were defeated 4-2 by the Toledo Walleye at the Huntington Center on Friday evening.

Bloomington seemed to have scored the game’s opening goal less than four minutes in when Riku Ishida found a wide-open net from the left faceoff circle, but the call was overturned due to incidental contact upon official review. The Bison continued to pressure and sailed a flurry of shots onto Toledo’s net but could not bust free on the scoreboard. With just over five minutes remaining in the period, the visitors were assessed a minor penalty and successfully killed it off. Eddie Matsushima came up with a shorthanded rush to keep Toledo on its heels, and less than two minutes after returning to even strength play, Parker Gavlas drew a tripping penalty. McKay denied an odd-man rush with under a minute to go, and the teams headed to intermission in a scoreless contest with Bloomington outshooting Toledo 10-7.

The Bison were unable to score on 31 seconds of carryover powerplay time, and the Walleye took a 1-0 lead merely 46 seconds into the middle frame. The man-advantage squad did capitalize to tie the game at 5:35 when Mark Kaleinikovas netted his fourth powerplay goal of the season. Lou-Felix Denis intercepted a Toledo pass and dished the puck to Kaleinikovas for the back-door finish. Seventeen seconds after tying the game, the Bison went back to the penalty box. While shorthanded, McKay stopped a barrage of Toledo chances and the Bison carried momentum of another successful penalty kill into a go-ahead goal. Ishida flung an outlet pass up the length of the boards from his own zone to Sullivan Mack on the offensive blue line, and Mack slipped past the defense to record the 2-1 marker. Bloomington killed off the beginning of a minor penalty before the buzzer sent each team to its locker room, and though the Bison trailed the Walleye 17-8 in second-period shots, they led 2-1 where it mattered most.

The penalty kill improved to 3/3 in the first 67 seconds of the third, making it perfect against the ECHL’s top powerplay, but Toledo scored at 3:38 to tie the game. At 5:11, Bloomington earned a great chance to regain its lead by drawing another penalty, but McKay shined brightest and stopped another shorthanded breakdown. Capitalizing on a fortunate line change, Toledo sprung onto a breakaway and was stopped by Bloomington’s netminder, but after the Bison failed to clear the loose puck from the crease, the Walleye scored their game-winning goal with 4:40 remaining in regulation. The Bison called a timeout and put an extra attacker on the ice but Toledo increased its lead to the 4-2 final score with 90 ticks left.

The Bison will return to home ice for Women in Sports Night on Friday, March 6 when the team will auction its blue alternate jerseys off after the game on the ice.

All Friday home games are 309 Nights featuring $3 Busch Lites, sodas and waters, $0 popcorn and $9 pizza combos and $9 specialty T-shirts!

 Single-game tickets are available for ALL Bloomington Bison home games starting as low as $20! Visit ticketmaster.com or call 309-965-HERD to purchase tickets today.