The Nailers took care of business, earning a 6-4 victory in a wild game in Fort Wayne last Saturday. How did Wheeling manage to come away with the win?
Well, in the words of legendary broadcaster Mike Lange, if you missed this one, shame on you for six weeks. This might’ve been one of the craziest games I’ve had the chance to listen to in a while. Both teams came out flying looking to get an early lead, but as the period creeped on past the midway point, neither team was able to gain the advantage.
Unfortunately, the Komets did finally break through for the first two goals just over two minutes apart, and as time ticked down, it appeared the 2-0 score would hold to the horn until Atley Calvert buried a shorthanded goal to get the Nailers on the board with just over a minute remaining in the frame. When the period ended, Fort Wayne led in shots 14-6, but it felt like momentum was shifting towards Wheeling.
In the second, that apparent lean became a full-fledged tilt in favor of the Nailers as they found the back of the net three times in the period, thanks to Sam Houde, Jack Beck, and a power play goal by Calvert with just seconds left in the frame gave Wheeling their own two-goal advantage with 20 minutes remaining. As a Nailers fan, you had to hope the third period would be a little more uneventful and that the good guys could just skate out with the two points.
Of course, that’s not how it works, and Fort Wayne came out for the third fired up. They pushed the game straight into the faces of the Nailers as much as they could, so much so that they led in shots for the final frame to the tune of 25-6. And yet it still took until just under nine minutes left in the game for the Komets to get one past Sergei Murashov (who ended up with 48 saves on 52 [!!] shots in the game) to bring it back to within a goal. The home fans got fired up after that one, but when they found the net again with just six minutes left, the place erupted and it felt like everything was going to go Fort Wayne’s way the rest of the time.
However, Wheeling found their footing. Fort Wayne continued to push, but the Nailers didn’t bend and, with about a minute and a half remaining in regulation, Matt Koopman cashed in his first of the season to put Wheeling back on top. The Komets pulled their goalie, but unfortunately for them, Calvert found the puck on his stick again and netted the hat trick goal to finish things off and send the Nailers back on the road with two huge points.
The Nailers made up for their only regulation loss this month by defeating Toledo 4-1 on Wednesday. What did Wheeling do well to get their revenge?
While it’s always nice to get a victory against another division leader, it’s even sweeter to get that win over the team in the lead of our previous division whom we’ve had an intense rivalry with for years.
The Walleye have long been a thorn in the side of the Nailers, having knocked Wheeling out of the playoffs each of the last two years with sweeps both times. Even though this might’ve just been a random regular season game in November, proving to ourselves that we can force them to play our game and beat them at it has to be a good feeling for everyone involved.
The Nailers had the jump early, scoring just over a minute into the game thanks to Mats Lindgren taking a good feed from Jordan Martel and finding the back of the net. Both teams had chances the rest of the period until, with just over three minutes left, Lindgren was able to put another one on the board to give Wheeling a 2-0 lead after 20 minutes. In the second, Toledo began pushing harder to try to get back into it and finally made their way onto the scoreboard with just under four minutes left, scoring a goal on Sergei Murashov just two seconds after a power play ended. Murashov had yet another strong showing, making 36 saves on 37 Walleye shots.
With Wheeling’s lead at just one, Toledo came out firing in the third, taking a 15-6 shot advantage in the final period. As the game approached the conclusion, the Walleye pulled their goalie for the extra skater, but the Nailers made them pay twice. Both Louie Roehl and Bennett MacArthur managed to score insurance goals, and Wheeling extended their record to 8-0-1 in their last 9 since that 3-2 loss in Toledo back on November 1.
The Nailers have two games this weekend against the Cyclones, with Friday afternoon’s game in Cincinnati followed by a Saturday night home tilt. What does Wheeling need to do in those games to come away with two victories?
With how well things have been going for the Nailers recently, it would be very easy to overlook these two games. Cincinnati has had a very down year thus far, with only two wins in their first 13 games (2-8-3 record) and their leading scorers only have seven points thus far (by comparison, the Nailers have six players with double digit point totals through 14 games). The Cyclones power play is the worst in the ECHL on the season with an 8.8% success rate on 36 opportunities, and they’re actually worse at home than they are on the road in that respect (5.9% at home to 10.5% on the road). Wheeling already has one win against Cincy this season, a 5-2 victory back on November 6.
That being said, Wheeling can’t let these games slip away against an opponent they will have to face another six times this season, with their next matchup coming next Saturday (December 7). Norfolk, the team in a tie with the Nailers at the top of the North Division points-wise, have relatively easy games this weekend as well against Maine, who is currently in last place in our division. In addition, Wheeling’s road forward doesn’t get any easier, with two home games against Kalamazoo and Reading sandwiched around that Cincinnati trip next weekend, followed by a two-game sojourn up to face the Royals the weekend after.
These are the types of games (and points) that good teams like the Nailers can’t afford to give away. Teams at the top of standings stay that way by picking on the teams who are down. The Nailers offense has been a strong point this year, while Cincinnati has given up almost 20 more goals than they’ve scored this year (44 against to 27 for after a 5-0 win over Kalamazoo on Wednesday). Wheeling needs to come out and set the tone early for how the weekend is going to go, get to their game and use their team speed to outpace and outhustle the Cyclones. If the Nailers can push Cincy back on their heels and keep them there, this could be a very successful weekend for them.
The Nailers have only played six division games to this point in the season, going 3-2-1 in those games. How do you think this will affect Wheeling when they get to the point where they are playing more games against the teams they’re fighting for playoff spots?
It’s rather strange to see the calendar flipping over to December and seeing that the Nailers have only played six games against their own division rivals. What’s even more strange is the fact that they’ve played more games against teams in their old division (eight, including Bloomington) than against their new division. And with two more against Cincinnati this weekend, that number will grow before Wheeling finally sees divisional games against Reading the next couple weekends.
That can be a blessing and a curse, really. While it would be nice to have more games played against the teams the Nailers will be battling for playoff positioning in the hope of setting the tone early in the year, having more games against those teams later can be nice too. As we get later in the year, teams who are lower in the standings and don’t see a way into the playoffs may not be pushing as hard and give Wheeling more opportunities at victories. Also, if the Nailers are in a dogfight in the standings and earn a victory against the team behind them, that could be a huge four-point swing in one game.
Personally, I’m in favor of having the division games later in the season. I like to look at these games now before you get there as the setup or preamble to the ones that matter most. Of course, if you get off to a poor start, it can be difficult to overcome. But even in those instances, it’s not impossible if you are able to keep those other teams in your division from gaining points on you when played head-to-head. I feel like the Nailers have done a lot so far to set themselves up well for when they do finally get to those matchups and will just continue to stay towards the top of the division once those games do come along.
Saturday night is a big night in Wheeling as the Nailers celebrate Hall of Fame night. What do you think about the induction of Tomas Vokoun and Steve Gibson?
It’s always fun to get to see former Nailers come back to the Friendly City and get recognized for what they did during their time here, as well as the success they saw after moving on from Wheeling. Both of these men saw some success during their time with the Thunderbirds/Nailers franchise, and both had success after their time ended here.
Gibson spent parts of four seasons in Wheeling between 1993-97 and played a total of 191 games here, scoring 126 goals and 126 assists for 252 points during his time here. Steve’s best season in Wheeling was the 1995-96 season, the final year as the Thunderbirds, where he scored 42 goals and 53 assists for 95 points. After leaving Wheeling, Steve spent seven seasons with the Quad City Mallards of the UHL, winning their league championship twice during that span, and he retired from professional hockey following the 2003-04 season.
Vokoun only had one year in Wheeling, compiling a 20-10-2 record during the 1995-96 campaign, the same year Gibson earned his 95 points. Tomas’s career took off from there, as he was promoted to Fredericton, the AHL team for the Montreal Canadiens, and eventually found his way to the show in 1998-99, playing 37 games for the Nashville Predators, going 12-18-4 that season after being claimed in the expansion draft. He played six seasons with the Preds before being traded to the Florida Panthers ahead of the 2007-08 season for three draft picks. Vokoun played four seasons there before finishing his career with one season each in Washington and Pittsburgh then, after playing two games for AHL Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, retired from professional hockey after the 2013-14 season.
And while I do think it’s really a cool thing to have these guys come back, I’d be remiss not to at least mention another huge milestone that night, as my friend DJ Abisalih celebrates his 1,000th Wheeling Nailers game called on the radio. I know this is something he’s been looking forward to for a while now, so to finally see him get to this point is absolutely awesome. I hope he has a great time and, more importantly, I hope the Nailers are able to come away with the win. I look forward to seeing everyone at the arena to celebrate this wonderful evening.
