INDEPENDENCE, Mo. — After two consecutive sweeps of the Kalamazoo Wings and Wheeling Nailers en route to a Central Division title, the Toledo Walleye quickly learned the Kansas City Mavericks would put up a fight in the Western Conference Finals.
Kansas City finished the regular season with the best record in the ECHL. As winners of the Brabham Cup, the Mavericks earned home-ice advantage throughout the entire playoffs.
However, the Walleye started the best-of-seven series at home in an unusual format of three home games followed by four away, due to graduation ceremonies at Kansas City's home arena.
The first three games were played at the Huntington Center, with the Mavericks snapping the Walleye's 22-game win streak with a 3-1 win in Game 1. Kansas City continued the momentum with a dominating 5-1 win in Game 2 before Toledo closed out the homestand with a 4-3 victory in Game 3, but lost high-scoring forwards Orrin Centazzo and Trenton Bliss to injury in the process.
Kansas City returned to home ice with a 2-1 series lead. Game 4 ended with the Mavericks winning 2-1. Now down 3 games to 1, Toledo was faced with the tough, but not impossible, task of winning three straight. It was something the Fish managed in 2014-15 against the South Carolina Stingrays to force a game seven, although it ended in a loss in triple overtime.
This time, the Walleye had to do it all on the road. Still without Bliss and Centazzo but bolstered by the return of point-per-game forward Mitchell Lewandowski, Toledo pulled off a 3-1 win in Game 5, keeping the series alive to Game 6.
The Mavericks opened scoring with the first three goals of the game. By the end of the second period, Toledo trailed Kansas City by a score of 3-0.
Kansas City's Jeremy McKenna completed a hat trick in the third period, scoring the fourth overall for the Mavericks while the Walleye remained scoreless.
The Mavericks would put another on the board before Toledo defenseman Matt Anderson finally found the back of the net for the Walleye's first goal of the game 9 minutes into the third period.
Keeping up the offense, the Mavericks continued to score and stifled the Walleye by a final tally of 7-1.
With Monday's win, Kansas City seals the series 4-2 and advances to the Kelly Cup Finals as the Western Conference champs.
The Mavericks will take on the yet-to-be-determined winner of the Eastern Conference Finals. The reigning champion Florida Everblades currently leads the Adirondack Thunder three games to two, with game six on Tuesday.
