Photo by Joe Lovell Wheeling’s Tanner Lauderoute (9) skates with the puck between two Toledo defenders during Wednesday night’s Game 3 of the ECHL Kelly Cup Central Division Finals inside WesBanco Arena. The Walleye won 7-2 to take a 3-0 lead in the best-of-7 series.

WHEELING — Not even a good start could keep Wheeling from falling into a 3-0 deficit in the ECHL Kelly Cup Central Division Finals.

The Nailers had three shots on goal in the first 90 seconds – including a point-blank attempt off the stick of Matthew Quercia that Toledo goalie John Lethemon denied 29 seconds in – but couldn’t tickle the twine and the Toledo Walleye skated to a 7-3 victory in Game 3 of the best-of-7 series before 1,496 fans inside WesBanco Arena.

Wheeling will attempt to stave off elimination in Game 4 on Friday, also in the Friendly City.

“I thought the start was, arguably, the best we’ve had all season,” Wheeling head coach Derek Army said. “It was a little bit frustrating. I think the save of the game was Lethemon’s pad save on Quercia. If that goes in we’re up 1-0 and the momentum is still with us, but, unfortunately, all of a sudden we turn the puck over and it’s in the back of our net in a game and now we’re chasing a game I thought we were very much in control of.”

The Walleye’s Riley Sawchuk picked up a loose puck inside his own zone, carried it up the ice before skating down the slot all alone and beating Wheeling netminder Jaxon Castor with a wrist shot at the 2-minute, 44-second mark.

With Jordan Frasca in the penalty box for roughing, Toledo made it 2-0 when Sam Craggs skated out of the circle all alone to the left of Castor and slipped the puck into the net for a 2-0 count at the 14-minute mark. It was the first of three goals with the man-advantage

Wheeling cut the deficit in half with a short-handed tally from Matt Koopman. He took a pass from Quercia just inside the Toledo blue line, deked Lethemon before roofing a back-hander into the top shelf at 15:18.

“We just wanted to get out of the period down 2-1. We were in a good spot, but another goal put us on our heels again,” Army said. “Then a couple of stupid penalties to start the second period had us really chasing again, but, a credit to the guys, we found ourselves back in the game.”

Brandon Kruse skated in front of the Wheeling net, flipping the puck past Castor at 18:19. Craggs logged his second helper as the margin grew to 3-1.

Brandon Hawkins’ power-play goal on a 5-on-3 put the Walleye ahead 4-1 at 3:33 of the middle period. Sawchuk and Mitchell Lewandoski assisted.

However, the Nailers kept coming as David Drake answered after taking a pass from Lukas Svejkosky to make it 4-2. Jordan Martel also assisted.

Sawchuk found the back of the net for the second time in the game when he blasted a one-timer from the right circle that zipped past Castor, ending his night as Garret Sparks took over between the pipes at 11:28. Castor stopped 16 of 21 shots.

Quercia made it 5-3 in the third off assists by Davis Bunz and Dustin Manz at 14:58, but back-to-back empty-net goals by Alexandre Doucet and Craggs capped the scoring at 17:45 and 18:51, respectively.

Sparks denied all seven shots he faced, drawing praise from Army.

“Garret was really good,” Army noted. “Cast has been great for us all season, especially down the stretch he’s been our guy. It was tough to pull him but sometimes when you change goalies like that, it sparks a team.”

Lethemon made 19 saves on 22 shots.

LOOSE PUCKS

-The 3 stars were Sawchuk (No. 1), Craggs (No. 2) and Quercia (No. 3).

-Cal Kiefluk, Peter Laviolette Jr., Taylor Gauthier and David Jankowski were all scratches for the Nailers.

-The Walleye are still perfect, 6-0, in the playoffs.