The Nailers earned two victories last weekend, getting revenge on Worcester by a 3-2 margin on Friday before beating Bloomington 4-1 on Saturday. What went well for Wheeling in these games?
It’s always nice to get back to your winning ways, especially when one of the teams you beat earned the victory over you just two nights prior. Then, to turn around and have a game 24 hours later against a team from the other conference and find a way to avoid losing your focus on the task at hand and bring home all four points available on the weekend is what winning teams find a way to do, which is exactly what the Nailers were able to accomplish.
After Wednesday’s game got as out of hand as it did, you had the feeling both teams may slow things down and feel each other out once more. Aside from a couple of power play chances for the Nailers, nothing much happened and the game was still scoreless after the first.
That changed quickly in the second, as Logan Pietila gave Wheeling the lead just 26 seconds in, but a penalty by the home team gave the Railers a chance and they took advantage to tie the game. The Nailers weren’t ready to let go of their lead that quickly though, as just a minute and a half later, Pietila pocketed his second of the night to give Wheeling their lead back before the game went off the handle again, with the two teams combining for 42 penalty minutes after the second Pietila goal before the end of the second period, but the Nailers continued to hold their lead.
The third period gave Wheeling another quick goal to double its lead, as Randy Hernández got a power play tally less than two minutes into the period. A late penalty call on the Nailers gave Worcester their second power play goal of the night with just over five minutes to play. Still, the Railers weren’t able to get another shot behind Taylor Gauthier from there, and Wheeling came away with the victory.
Gauthier was given a second start in as many nights, this time against Bloomington on Saturday. In the first, both teams took penalties within the first 10 minutes, but neither team could do much on their power play chances. A second (then a third) Wheeling penalty in the first led to the Nailers scoring two shorthanded goals thanks to Craig Armstrong and a third goal of the weekend for Pietila, and Wheeling held the 2-0 advantage after the first.
The second period was one of the weakest I think I’ve seen the Nailers play all year, as they sat back in their zone and allowed the Bison to run play, firing 19 shots at Gauthier. One shot did find its way through on yet another power play chance, and the game was 2-1 heading into the third. Bloomington continued to push in the third, but nothing else was making it through before Aidan Sutter gave Wheeling their two-goal advantage back. The Bison pulled their goalie late, but Jack Works found the open net and helped the Nailers bring home the 4-1 victory.
The Nailers will now face the defending Kelly Cup champion Trois-Rivières Lions for the first time this season in a three-game set this weekend. What does Wheeling need to do to come away with three wins?
I will say, on behalf of all Nailers fans, thank you to Trois-Rivières for keeping Toledo from winning the championship last season. That being said, this is a new year, and Wheeling finds themselves sitting in first place in the division while the Lions are battling it out with Maine and Worcester to hold on to fourth place in the North as we approach the midpoint of the 2025-26 season.
Trois-Rivières comes to the Friendly City with 29 standings points on a 13-11-0-3 record, but 11 of those 13 wins thus far this season have come on home ice for the Lions (11-4-0-1 home record with a +20-goal differential versus 2-7-0-2 record on the road and a -19-goal differential). What has really hurt the Lions on the road this year has been their specialty teams, as both the power play and penalty kill sit top-10 in the league on home ice, but their penalty kill is 18th in the ECHL on the road while the power play is even worse, sitting in 28th in the 30-team league when not at the Colisée Vidéotron.
That, combined with the fact that they have the fourth-highest average number of penalty minutes per game in the entire league at 15.44 minutes per game (Wheeling sits at 11th with 13.53 minutes per game) shows just how important it will be for the Nailer specialty teams to play well in these three games. The Wheeling power play unit is the second-best in the league on home ice, scoring on 26.1% of their opportunities. If the Nailers can continue at that pace, they should see a lot of success this weekend.
The Nailers enter the weekend with a 22-7-1 record through 30 games. Last year, Wheeling had a 23-6-1 record at the same point, including a 13-game win streak. Considering how last year ended (second place in the North Division and a first-round exit to Norfolk), how can the Nailers avoid a similar outcome this season?
Hockey has become a significantly easier sport to earn standings points in since the invention of the “loser point”, the point given to the team who loses a game in either overtime or a shootout. Having games that go beyond the regular 60 minutes be worth three points instead of the normal two for a regulation game doesn’t feel fair and doesn’t normally allow for greater separation in the standings anymore, but that’s a subject for another day.
Despite that, it’s still impressive when a team can get to this point in the season and still have a 0.750 points percentage or higher, which the Nailers have managed to do each of the last two seasons. If a team could maintain that for the entire season, they would have 108 standings points at the end of the year, which would have eclipsed Trois-Rivières’ 98 points they earned last season and been just behind the 109 points earned by South Carolina.
As for avoiding the disappointing outcomes of falling from first and not advancing in the playoffs, there are a number of statistical signs that Wheeling should be able to avoid that. Their total goal differential of +30 (+19 at home and +11 on the road) is one of the best in the league and is a good sign that they’re a strong offensive club who doesn’t shirk their duties on the defensive end either. It also helps when you have one of the best goaltenders in team history in Taylor Gauthier backstopping you as well.
Digging even deeper, the Nailers have managed to score first in 20 of their 30 contests to this point and have accumulated a record of 17-3-0 in those games, for a 0.850 points percentage, well above the 0.731 league average for teams who score first. That tells me Coach Ryan Papaioannou keeps the team focused on the task at hand when playing from ahead, and the guys on the team continue to press and play their style of hockey even when winning.
Also, on the subject of outscoring opponents, Wheeling has averaged 3.23 goals per game this season while allowing 2.23 goals per game, for a difference of 1.00 goals per game on average. That is the fourth-highest average difference in the league this year, behind Toledo (1.39), Atlanta (1.30), and Florida (1.21). It may sound simple, but the Nailers continue to find ways to outscore their opponents on a nightly basis, and that will absolutely translate into success if they can keep their averages where they currently are.
Defenseman Brent Johnson was selected by the ECHL to represent Wheeling in the All-Star game in Allen, TX, on January 19. What has he done that makes him worthy of the honor for the Nailers?
Johnson is here in Wheeling for his first full season as a professional, coming off of four years of college hockey (two at North Dakota followed by two at THE Ohio State University). He scored 13 points (five goals and eight assists) in 37 and 38 games, respectively, in his two years at OSU, which is pretty impressive coming from the blueline. So far this season, Brent has collected four goals and 16 assists for 20 points (with those latter two figures in second place among ECHL rookie defensemen for this season).
While there are several players who have played well enough to be worthy of the honor of being an all-star (Logan Pietila, Connor Lockhart, and Taylor Gauthier come to mind), I don’t think Johnson was a bad choice by those with a vote on who would go from Wheeling. Brent has had a great year thus far, not just with his offensive skill showing, but playing a full 200-foot game and his strong specialty team play makes him worthy of the chance. At just 22 years of age, it wouldn’t surprise me if he has many more of these honors to earn during his hockey career.
The Nailers will transform into the Fantastic 304 for Saturday’s Marvel Night game against Trois-Rivières. What are your thoughts about this promotion?
As someone who is Team Marvel over Team DC any day of the week, I am really looking forward to this one. I can remember walking with my friends down to downtown Follansbee growing up and going to the comic book store, looking for the latest issue of The Amazing Spider-Man to take home and read. And while I do admit the original Batman movies (with Pittsburgh’s own Michael Keaton) hold a special spot in my heart as the movies that showed Hollywood that people wanted superhero films, I will always be a Marvel person, as I have enjoyed the entire MCU, but especially the Spider-Man movies (yes, even the ones with Tobey Maguire as the webslinger).
While Fantastic Four wasn’t always one of the ones at the top of the list of my favorites (although The Thing was pretty cool), I think turning that into the Fantastic 304 in honor of West Virginia is a really fun touch. And to have the team auctioning off the jerseys is really cool too, which is something the Nailers have done for quite a while with their specialty jerseys. Combine that with a poster giveaway for the first 2,500 fans through the doors, along with Fantastic Four themed skills stations scattered throughout the arena, and I think this is going to be a really fun night for everyone involved. I look forward to getting back down to WesBanco Arena this weekend for this one, and I will see you at the rink.
