BEN KRAWS MAKES 41 SAVES AS STEELHEADS DEFEAT WALLEYE 5-2

BOISE, ID – The Idaho Steelheads (2-0-0-0, 4pts) defeated the Toledo Walleye (2-1-0-0, 4pts) Wednesday night by a final score of 5-2 in in front of a sellout crowd of 5,075 fans at the Idaho Central Arena. Idaho will host Toledo this Friday and Saturday at 7:10 p.m. 

Idaho led 2-1 after the first period with the Walleye outshooting the Steelheads 14-13. Hank Crone (1^st) would pot his first in a Steelheads jersey at 7:17 from Ty Pelton-Byce and Thomas Caron making it 1-0. Caron from the right-wing wall sent a beautiful backhand saucer pass to Pelton-Byce driving through the right circle. From there he directed it to his left where Crone sent a quick shot near side on Jan Bednar. Just 4:49 later Connor MacEachern (2^nd) would increase the lead to 2-0 with A.J. White and Matt Register collecting helpers. From behind his own net Register snapped the puck up the right side for MacEachern with speed. MacEachern led a two-on-one with White and slid the puck to the Captain in the high slot. White fed MacEachern back in the right circle for a one-timer into the back of the cage. Trenton Bliss got the Walleye on the board on a wraparound goal with 4:12 remaining in the period.   

The Steelheads led 5-2 after 40 minutes of play despite being outshot by the Walleye 16-8 in the middle stanza. Idaho headed on their second power-play of the game 3:43 into the stanza and it took just 25 seconds for Thomas Caron (2^nd) to make the score 3-1. Patrick Kudla from the top of the slot fed Hank Crone at the left circle. Crone worked it back for Kudla where he stepped into a shot that was fought off by the right shoulder of Jan Bednar. Caron would locate the rebound at slam it home at 4:08 on the man advantage. Idaho’s third power-play of the contest came at 11:56 of the second period. Brendan Hoffman (1^st) scored his first as a Steelhead 29 seconds into the man advantage making it 4-1. Matt Register zipped the puck into the offensive zone as it wrapped around the back wall and to the right hash marks. Toledo turned the puck over to A.J. White right in the left circle where he fed Hoffman backdoor all alone. Just 39 seconds later Casey Dornbach threw a shot toward the net that went off the backside of Josh Nodler pulling Toledo back within two. Hank Crone (2^nd) made it 5-2 just 42 seconds after the Walleye cut the deficit down to a pair with his second of the night. Patrick Kudla dumped the puck into the offensive zone where A.J. White went in on the forecheck in the right corner. White spun around a fired a behind the back, backhand pass for Crone in the high slot where he sent a wrist shot off the near post into the net.   

Ben Kraws made 41 saves on 43 shots in the victory while Jan Bednar made 22 saves on 27 shots in the loss. 

BOX SCORE

ICCU Three Stars
1) Hank Crone (IDH, 2-1-3, +2, 3 shots)  
2) Ben Kraws (IDH, 41 saves) 
3) A.J. White (IDH, 0-3-3, +1)  

GAME NOTES

• Idaho went 2-for-5 on the power-play while Toledo was 3-for-3. 
• Idaho outshot Toledo 43-27. 
• Idaho is now 6-5-0-0 all-time vs. Toledo and 4-0-0-0 in Boise. 
• Tomas Sholl (IR), Romain Rodzinski (DNP), C.J. Walker (DNP), and Sam Sternschein (DNP) did not dress for Idaho.
• Thomas Caron (1-1-2), A.J. White (0-3-3), Matt Register (0-2-2), Patrick Kudla (0-2-2), and Hank Crone (2-1-3) all tallied multi-point games. 
• Brendan Hoffmann scored his first goal as a Steelhead. 
• Patrick Kudla led all Idaho skaters with four shots. 

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