The Nailers were able to take two of three from Reading last weekend, winning Friday and Sunday with a loss in the middle on Saturday. What did Wheeling do well in these games to keep pace in the race for second place?
When you’re in a dogfight for playoff positioning with a team that managed to go 2-0-2 last week then won their midweek matchup with Reading, it’s important to maximize your points as much as possible. Having only one point of separation heading into the final three games of the season doesn’t inspire much confidence, but at least the Nailers enter this final weekend of games off a couple pretty good games, while still performing admirably in the loss.
Wheeling came out of the gates firing on Friday but couldn’t get anything in the Reading net until Gabe Klassen finally scored with less than four to play in the period, but Reading responded less than two minutes later, and the game was tied after the first. The Nailers capitalized again early in the second, as Brent Johnson scored in his professional debut on the power play, but again the Royals came back just over two minutes later on their own man advantage to tie it up again.
Wheeling would score their third of the game with just under eight minutes left in the second thanks to Phip Waugh, but Reading responded for the third time just a minute later, and it appeared the game would remain tied going into the third before David Jankowski gave the Nailers the lead for good with just over five minutes left in the second. Wheeling would score twice in the third, with goals from Logan Pietila and an empty netter from Klassen, and the Nailers took the game with a 6-3 final score.
Reading managed to come out firing on Saturday, getting an early power play and cashing in on it less than a minute into the contest, but Wheeling did like the Royals the night before and responded just 15 seconds later from Jankowski and the score was tied before Reading scored once more, and we had three goals within the first seven minutes of the game.
The score remained that way until six minutes into the second when Reading extended their lead to two, which then held until Wheeling finally broke through again from Logan Pietila to make it a one-goal game once more, heading into the third. The Royals once again scored just two minutes into the third period to extend the lead, but Wheeling refused to give up and Matthew Quercia managed to cut the deficit in half. Reading extended it again with under eight minutes left, but Klassen scored his third of the weekend to make it a one-goal game with under two minutes left.
Wheeling pulled the goalie to get the extra skater, but it wasn’t enough, and the Royals took the second game of the weekend series.
Then on Sunday, Wheeling came out hot again, scoring less than a minute into the game on a goal by Eli Lieffers to take an early lead. While the Nailers managed to outshoot the Royals in the period 18-9, that early goal turned out to be the only one of the period and Wheeling held that lead into the second. In the second, Gabe Klassen scored his fourth of the weekend, once again on the power play, and the Nailers doubled their lead just under four minutes in.
Wheeling managed to push their lead to three after a Mats Lindgren goal with just over three minutes to play, but Reading broke the shutout with less than a minute remaining in the second on another man advantage, and the Nailers had another two-goal lead going into the third. The Royals pushed hard in the final period to get closer, but Taylor Gauthier shut the door with 12 saves in the period, and Wheeling came away with the 3-1 victory to end the weekend and their home regular season slate.
The Nailers finish the regular season this weekend with three games at Trois-Rivières. What does Wheeling need to do in these games to ensure they finish ahead of Norfolk when the final horn sounds for the regular season?
Well, the circumstances for this series aren’t exactly what I was hoping they would be back in January, but it’s still an exciting matchup based on what it would mean to Wheeling to win these games.
Back around the halfway point of the season, it seemed like these teams were on a collision course to determine the division winner over this weekend, but Trois-Rivières was able to forge their path ahead and clinch the division before we ever got to this final series.
And what a final series it is, as Wheeling comes in with a 1-1-1 record against the Lions coming into it, knowing that three wins this weekend will clinch the second seed and more games at home than away in the opening round with Norfolk. However, the Admirals did win their Wednesday night game against Reading 4-3 to leapfrog Wheeling into second place (hopefully temporarily), but they finish their season with two games this weekend against a South Carolina team who currently have the best record in the ECHL at 50-14-3-2.
The Nailers just have to make sure to match what the Admirals do over their final three games to ensure they are able to jump back into second place, as Wheeling currently owns the tiebreaker between these two squads.
As for the series at hand, Trois-Rivières presents a certain challenge of their own but will be coming into the matchup off of a 4-1 loss at Maine on Wednesday. The Lions have been borderline unbeatable on their home ice, with only four regulation losses at home this year leading to a record of 23-4-4-2 at the Colisée Vidéotron.
This will be the Nailers’ first trip north of the border this season to face the Lions, but possibly not the last, if both teams are able to get past their first-round matchups and meet again in the divisional round.
As for these games, it’s hard to say what the outcome could be since Trois-Rivières already has everything wrapped up and are just waiting to find out who they’ll be playing in the first round. They could elect to sit some of their better players (assuming they have enough guys on the roster who aren’t dressed) to get some rest before the playoffs begin. If they come out trying to spoil things for Wheeling, the big thing to watch out for is their specialty team play.
Both their power play and penalty kill are ranked top five in the ECHL, so for the Nailers to see success, they will need to do so at even strength and, if that fails, their own specialty teams will need to step up and play better than they did last weekend against Reading.
The Nailers have announced how the playoffs will be structured for them with games one and two destined to be in Norfolk no matter which team wins home ice. How might this development affect Wheeling in their first-round matchup?
Boy, it really stinks that the Nailers did so well at home during the regular season, could find a way to earn home ice, and still have to start the playoffs on the road. However, it would be interesting the deeper into the series it goes if Wheeling does earn home ice and could see up to five straight games at home in the playoffs, if the series goes seven.
These two teams have only squared off twice this season, with both games being played in Norfolk, so seeing them face each other in Wheeling for the first time this year in the playoffs is a bit strange. Normally, teams will have more than two games in a season against divisional foes, but with the Nailers making the move to the North Division this year, I’m guessing the schedule was still skewed towards the Central Division that they moved away from.
My hope is that we will see more divisional games in the future as the league adjusts for divisional realignment.
I also find it peculiar that the Admirals have been a better team on the road this season than at home, amassing a record of 19-13-2-0 as opposed to 21-10-4-1 on the road, compared to how much better the Nailers have been at WesBanco Arena than away from it this season. Both teams finish their seasons in the manner in which they have been worse this year, so that could also play into how things finish up and how much hockey we will see in the Friendly City in the first round.
The Nailers’ Gabe Klassen was named ECHL Player of the Week for his performance against Reading last weekend. How impressive was his performance in those games to earn this award?
It’s always nice to see a player from the Nailers get recognition from the league for just how well he has been playing. When that player happens to be a 21-year-old first-year professional who is tied for 12th in the league in points by a rookie with 43 in 65 games played, it’s even more impressive.
Klassen was able to amass six points on four goals and two assists in the three games against the Royals last weekend, with two multi-point games.
On Friday, he was able to bookend the game with his two goals while getting an assist on the game winning goal, followed by another goal and an assist on Saturday and the game winning goal on Sunday.
To see a young man like Klassen come into his first season as a professional after finishing up his time in major-junior up in Canada and have success is really cool to see. In addition to Klassen, other players such as Matty De St. Phalle, Mats Lindgren, Atley Calvert, and Jack Beck (despite the last two currently being up in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton) who have been able to make the jump from either the junior ranks or college to the professional level and perform like they have has been impressive, and I look forward to seeing what they do throughout the rest of their careers.
The Nailers will finish this regular season having welcomed over 94,000 fans to WesBanco Arena for games this season. What do you think of that final figure for this year, and can they go even higher next year?
Just a few weeks ago, I mused on the idea of the Nailers hitting 100,000 fans through the doors this season, as it appeared they had a chance of getting there. Even though they never did, getting up to the levels they did hit was still impressive.
Attendance in Wheeling has gone up each year over the three years I have been writing this column, and it’s nice to see just how much our community is investing in getting to the arena and seeing this team in action.
I can also tell, just in some of the conversations I’ve had with people involved with the team, how much it means to all of them as well. They want to provide a winning product that everyone in the valley can be proud of and happy to go see, so having that number increase year after year makes them all feel good.
I know they still have some home games left for this year once the playoffs start, but I really look forward to next season and seeing just how many of us can make it down to watch the games.
Let’s work on getting that number up over that 100,000 plateau to show this team just how much they mean to all of us here in the Ohio Valley.
