The Nailers continued their hot road streak with two big wins in Reading over the Royals. What did Wheeling do to extend their winning streak?
After how frustrating the game turned out on Wednesday for Reading, the Nailers had to be prepared for a huge burst out of the gate by the Royals.
Any time a team is able to come back from two-goal deficits twice in the same game and eventually win the game, even if it was in overtime, it can be a bit demoralizing for a team, and that’s what came to pass as Wheeling was the aggressors out of the gate. The Nailers managed to outshoot the Royals 21-6 in the first period and came out of it with a 1-0 lead thanks to an outstanding individual effort by Jordan Martel (but more on him later in the article). That had to be one of the most dominant periods of hockey I remember Wheeling playing in recent years, and they certainly weren’t done for this game.
Coming out for the second period, you just felt like things were going to explode for the Nailers at any point, and it started early, with Tanner Laderoute scoring less than a minute into the period to extend the Wheeling lead to 2-0. From there, the power play took over a bit, scoring twice with the man advantage off the sticks of Martel again and David Jankowski to push the advantage to 4-0 heading into the final frame. Wheeling managed to outshoot Reading 15-4 in that period, and I really wonder if the official scorer gave the Royals credit for ones that didn’t actually make it all the way on net, because they certainly didn’t seem to have much offensive push in the game to that point.
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In the third period, Reading found themselves on an extended power play thanks to Peter Laviolette getting called for a major penalty for charging with mere seconds left in the previous period. The Royals managed to make them pay for it, collecting two goals to make the game appear close again at 4-2 before Wheeling finally pulled away. Two goals by Isaac Belliveau (the second of which on the power play) put the game out of reach. Reading just wouldn’t go away though, scoring another goal with five minutes left, but Wheeling answered just 16 seconds later from Sebastien Dirven before Martel capped things off with his hat trick goal to bring the score to the eventual final of 8-3 Nailers.
In the Saturday finale, Reading finally looked ready to play hockey, as they held strong against Wheeling early in the period. Eventually, the skill on the Nailers roster became too much, with Wheeling cashing in three times before the period was over thanks to Thimo Nickl, Lukas Svejkovsky, and Dillon Hamaliuk. Despite how slow the game started, it rapidly became apparent that the Nailers are just too much for this Reading team, and it felt like it was quickly heading towards another blowout like the night before.
When the teams returned to the ice for the second, Reading showed they didn’t want to give up that easily, and just over two minutes into the frame, they managed to earn their first of the game to bring it back to a two-goal differential. That seemed to spark the Nailers, as they upped the intensity and pressure even more and didn’t allow the Royals to manage any sustained pressure the rest of the frame. The rest of the period belonged to Wheeling, who managed to score four times in the period to essentially finish the game after goals by Jarrett Lee, Hamaliuk, Svejkovsky, and Matt Koopman to make it 7-1 with one period to go.
The final frame of the series felt like both teams already knew the outcome and were just skating until the horn sounded. Wheeling managed to cash in once off the stick of Matt Quercia to equal the eight goals from the night before then Reading got one late in the game to make it an 8-2 final score. The only Wheeling player not to earn a point in the game was Jaxon Castor, the goalie, in a game that was thoroughly dominated by the Nailers. It must’ve been quite bad for the Royals, as they announced the firing of their coach the Monday after the series ended.
The Nailers finished the road trip Wednesday with a 6-3 victory in Cincinnati to have their first six-game road winning streak in franchise history. How did the Nailers keep it up?
As the month of January came to a close, Wheeling found themselves on the road for one last game, this time against the Cyclones, a team the Nailers have seen some success against so far this season.
Cincinnati came out firing early and managed to hang two on the Nailers before Wheeling finally found the back of the net. Isaac Belliveau took a heavy shot on goal that bounced off the Cyclones goalie and back onto his stick, which he then stuffed into the net to get Wheeling back in the game before the first intermission.
The second period has really been where Wheeling has taken advantage of teams this year, having scored 59 goals in their previous 39 games coming into this one, allowing only 35 goals in the same stretch. That’s the fourth best single period differential in the entire league this season, and the Nailers did it again in this game. Justin Lee cashed in just a minute and a half into the period to bring the score back to even before Belliveau scored his second of the game and Lukas Svejkovsky put one in to make it 4-2 Wheeling heading into the third period. Taylor Gauthier, despite giving up two goals on only five shots in the first period, looked very strong in the second, making 13 saves to allow Wheeling to build that lead.
Less than a minute into the third period, and while on the man advantage, Cincinnati found the net behind Gauthier once again to bring it back to a 4-3 difference with plenty of hockey left to play, but Wheeling tightened up the defense and only allowed the Cyclones to get six more shots on goal the rest of the way, all saves by Gauthier. To help him, Matt Koopman scored his eighth goal of the season five and a half minutes through the period, followed by Cedric Desruisseaux getting a power play goal just short of halfway through the frame to extend the Wheeling lead to 6-3, which ended up being the final score.
What really impresses me the most is not just the fact that the Nailers have found a way to win every game of a six-game road trip for the first time in team history, but they’re doing it on the heels of what some might consider a disastrous homestand. This shows just how mentally tough this team is, to put something that mentally draining behind them and focus on the games at hand. It also shows that Coach Derek Army is able to keep the team moving and is preparing them for what life is like in hockey. I really feel like this team is poised to do something special this season, and they can hang with just about any team in this league.
The Nailers will now return home for three games over the weekend against the Orlando Solar Bears. How can they keep the momentum from their road trip and win these games?
Well, what a good time for this team to come back around on the schedule, considering how things went against them before.
If you remember, the Nailers made the trip down to Orlando the first weekend of the new year, coming off of a stretch where they had won five of their last six games. They came out of that three-game set with only one win, and despite hanging tough in the losses, the Solar Bears looked a step ahead at almost every turn.
This time around, they are coming to the Friendly City, where we hope the crowd is a little less friendly than the nickname suggests. Orlando comes in sitting in fourth place in the South Division but have managed to lose their last seven games in a row, four of them in overtime or shootout. The problem is, the Solar Bears are a strong road team this season, with a record of 12-5-4 when away from home. Wheeling, now sitting in third in a very strong Central Division, comes into the three-game set with a 10-8-0-1 record at home, but they will have to quickly forget the last time they were at home for that tough stretch in January.
The big thing to watch out for in this series is once again the play of the specialty teams. Orlando’s power play on the road isn’t very good, with an 18.3% success rate, although that is higher than their overall power play success rate for the season, which is 16.0%. Their penalty kill is actually top 10 in the entire ECHL in terms of road success, getting stops on 83.8% of opportunities against. Wheeling, for how well their power play has managed to perform during their six-game streak, has one of the worst home ice power play groups in the league, sitting in 25th out of the 28 teams, with a 14.5% success rate. For the Nailers to earn at least two wins, or hopefully even all three, they will need that group to step up and contribute at home to give them that edge in this matchup.
Back-to-back weeks now for members of the Nailers winning awards from the ECHL as Jordan Martel was named player of the week. How did he earn that distinction from the league?
Last week, Taylor Gauthier deservedly was named the ECHL goalie of the week after a very strong showing against Iowa.
This time, with how much the offense showed up during the series in Reading, it isn’t surprising that Martel, who led the way most of the way, earned the player of the week honors. In the Wednesday game, Jordan scored two goals and set up another to help Wheeling earn the come from behind overtime win. Then on Friday, he scored three more goals and added an assist, followed by an assist in the game on Saturday, to run his weekend up to five goals and three assists for eight points in the three-game set.
Despite starting the season in Utah and playing 16 games for the Grizzlies where he managed to earn 11 points (six goals, five assists), Martel has come to Wheeling and been one of the strongest offensive threats during his time here. In 18 games in a Nailers jersey, he has earned 12 goals with six assists for 18 points, averaging a point per game during his time in Wheeling. Of his 18 total goals so far this season, seven have been scored on the power play (three in Utah and four thus far in Wheeling), which is something Wheeling needs more of to continue their climb in the standings. For the Nailers to have hopes of playing deep into April, they will need Jordan Martel to continue to play the way he has been and continue to give them that spark.
The Nailers will be bringing back Penguins night on February 10th against Reading with special appearances and a puck giveaway. How much fun do you expect this night to be?
Anyone who knows me knows I’m a longtime fan of the Penguins, so this event is right up my alley.
When people ask me how long I’ve been a fan, I tell them I remember watching Mario, Jags, Ronny Franchise and all those guys win their back-to-back Cups in the early 90’s. I remember watching during the lean years when our best players were Rico Fata and Krzysztof Oliwa (yes, I had to look up the spelling of the first name, it’s been 22 years since he’s been on the team). I remember thinking they were leaving for Kansas City and part of my hockey fandom was about to be ruined before Mario saved the team again and kept them in the Burgh. And of course, I remember the great years since with Sid the Kid, Geno, and the rest of the boys in black and gold bringing home three more Stanley Cups in the 2000’s.
So, to have the chance to see former Penguin Trevor Daley, who came over from Chicago and helped earn two of those five championships, is a really awesome opportunity. I hope he comes down and goes into the locker room and talks to the players in there, to show them what it takes to make it to that level and to earn those trophies. I’m sure he has plenty of stories and experiences that he can share that the players can appreciate and look up to. In addition to Daley, Penguins’ mascot Iceburgh will be there for photos with the family, and they will also be giving away Penguins pucks to fans as they come in the arena. I really look forward to this one every year, and I hope to see you all down there supporting the hometown boys and enjoying the festivities.
