The Nailers took care of business over the weekend, winning both home games against Reading. What did they do in those games to extend their winning streak to 12?
Boy, when things are going as well as they have for the Nailers recently, you have to think they’re in every game, no matter the situation. It could be a close game, they could be down by a couple going into the third, the power play could be struggling. But then one thing breaks their way, and you can just see it in their faces that they know they’re back in the game, and they take over.
When you have a couple lines that are as dangerous as theirs are with the puck, combined with players who are willing to impose their will physically to keep their opponent in check, it can be a great combination, and that’s proving itself right now.
Friday’s game started very slowly, with both teams trying to get a feel for each other again after playing in Reading on Tuesday. Despite Wheeling being given a couple of power play opportunities, they couldn’t find a way to get enough pressure on the Royals to get one in the net, something that would be a theme for both power play groups on the night as the two teams combined to go 0-for-9 with the man advantage.
The first period finished with a slight shot advantage for Wheeling, but with the scoreboard showing zero for both teams.
The second period was quite different, as the Nailers pressed hard right off the bat to try to get the advantage of scoring first. That ended up happening about seven and a half minutes into the stanza, as Peter Laviolette got his first goal of the season, as a David Jankowski shot ended up on his stick and he tucked it in. Just under four minutes later, Laviolette dropped the mitts with a player from Reading, meaning he was just one assist away from earning a Gordie Howe Hat Trick (which is a goal, an assist, and a fight in the same game).
Spoiler alert: it unfortunately didn’t happen for him on this night. Wheeling did manage to hold the lead for almost 10 minutes before the Royals finally found the net behind Taylor Gauthier on a penalty shot to make it 1-1.
Despite Wheeling outshooting Reading in the period 19-6, the teams left the ice to prepare for the final period deadlocked.
Coming back out for the third, it was the Royals who upped the pressure this time, finding ways to get pucks on the net and causing the Nailers to take three penalties in the period. Luckily, the Wheeling penalty kill was playing very well, getting timely clears from their zone, and allowing Gauthier to make save after save, 11 in total in the period. Unfortunately, one of the Wheeling penalties did happen to get called with only 39 seconds left on the clock, meaning the Nailers had to find a way to shut them down for that long to force overtime, which is exactly what they did to ensure they would get at least one point on the night.
In the overtime, Reading had 1:21 left on the man advantage, which is usually a death sentence for the shorthanded team, but Wheeling survived and, shortly after getting back to even, Justin Addamo scored to send the fans home happy with a big win, their 11th in a row, giving them a chance to tie the team record for wins in a row the next night.
On Saturday, the Nailers wore what I honestly think is the coolest jersey they’re going to wear all year for Pittsburgh Penguins night, with the old school Thunderbirds logo in black on a sharp looking gold jersey. Unfortunately, the first period was a repeat of the first period from the night before, as both teams slowly got into the game.
Once things opened up a little, both teams had their chances, but couldn’t figure out the goalies and were deadlocked 0-0 after the first again.
Reading took a penalty right as the period ended, giving Wheeling their first man advantage of the night to start the second, and they took advantage quickly. Jordan Martel took the puck and flipped it in on the backhand just 29 seconds into the frame to giving the Nailers a 1-0 lead. The second period also featured the second fight in as many nights, which is something that’s rather rare in the game of hockey these days, as Matthew Quercia dropped the mitts. Wheeling managed to maintain that lead through the end of the period, despite Reading outshooting them in the period on the whole.
The third period then became the Jordan Martel show, as he managed to score his second and third goals on the night for the natural hat trick in the first six minutes of the period to just about put the game away for Wheeling.
Reading, knowing they needed to push hard to at least get one goal to have a chance to get back into it, could only muster five shots on net, all turned away by Gauthier, who earned his league leading third shutout of the season in his league leading 18th win of the year. When you have a goalie who’s playing as well as Gauthier has been this year, it allows the guys in front of him to play loose and fast and causes the other team to have to play on their heels. This bodes well for Wheeling down the stretch as their standings fight intensifies (but more on that shortly).
The Nailers are back on the road this weekend for three games in Utah against the Grizzlies. What do they need to do to hopefully bring their winning streak back home with them?
Situations like these can be a real double-edged sword. You’re excited because you have a chance to see a team you haven’t seen in a long while, but in the same vein, that means you don’t have much experience against them (like you would with a team like Reading, whom you have faced eight times already this year) to feed off of.
This year’s Utah team sits just outside of a playoff spot in the Mountain Division in fifth with 43 standings points, but just two points behind the Allen Americans with two games in hand, so they’re still very much in the thick of things. The Grizzlies are a much better home team than road team, with a 14-7-0 record on home ice. On the other side, the Nailers have seen a lot of success on the road recently, with a 13-8-1 record away from Wheeling, but have won their last seven away games in a row dating back to January 19th.
One thing that could prove to be very important in this series is scoring the first goal. Utah has only done so in 18 of their 46 games on the season, but in those games, they have a record of 14-3-1, while Wheeling has scored first 26 times in a similar number of games and have a record of 20-5-0-1 when they manage to.
The Grizzlies have played seven games this season against teams from the Central Division, going 0-7-0 in those games (0-1 against Cincinnati, 0-3 against Fort Wayne, and 0-3 against Iowa), so they might be extra motivated to not get swept by members of the Nailers division. Wheeling will need to come out and get to their game quickly against a hungry team like Utah to hopefully keep them from getting too much momentum.
Another potentially important difference is in specialty teams, where Utah has not been very good this season overall. Their powerplay is 25th in the 28-team league, while their penalty is dead last in the league. However, they have been much better at home on both counts than when on the road. Their power play sits towards the middle of the rankings on home ice at 17th, but their penalty kill is vastly better when at home, sitting in ninth place in the league.
Wheeling will need to find a way to take advantage of those moments and make the Grizzlies pay when they give the Nailers an opportunity with the extra skater.
Another week, another set of weekly awards for the Nailers as Taylor Gauthier won goalie of the week while Jordan Martel won player of the week. How did they do it this time around?
For the third time in team history (following Nick Petersen and Peter Delmas in 2011 and Cody Sylvester and Mike Condon in 2014), two members of the Nailers have won both awards in the same week, and it was very well deserved.
If it had been announced that these awards were in recognition of everything they’ve done this season thus far in a Nailers jersey, I would have no question they still deserve the recognition. That’s how special these guys have been thus far and just how important they are to getting Wheeling to where they are in the standings.
As mentioned earlier, the player they call Goat (Gauthier) has been one of the absolute best goalies in the entire league so far this year. He’s currently first in wins (18), shutouts (three), and minutes played (1,754) amongst goalies in the ECHL, as well as second in goals against average (2.29) and fifth in saves (785) and save percentage (.921).
He also currently has nine straight wins, which is the second longest streak in team history (David Brumby had 10 straight in 1997-98). Gauthier has shown time and again he has the skill to play at this level and beyond and will one day have a chance to stick in the AHL long-term, so I advise fans to enjoy and appreciate his time here in Wheeling while he is playing in a Nailers uniform.
As for Martel, he began his season with the Nailers next opponent, the Utah Grizzlies, and in 16 games there had six goals and five assists for 11 points. But upon joining Wheeling in December, he has found his stride offensively, netting 18 goals along with eight assists for 26 points in only 24 games in a Nailers uniform.
Being a point-per-game or higher player in a professional league is quite difficult and is normally only achieved by some of the best players in those leagues. He becomes only the seventh player in Nailers’ history to earn the player of the week honor multiple times in the same season. Martel is tied for the team lead with 37 points on the season, and his 24 goals are tied for third most by a player in the league this year.
This is another guy who has shown time and again that he has the skill to advance his hockey career to higher levels, so I definitely look forward to watching and enjoying what he does as a Nailer while he’s still here too.
The Nailers find themselves just five points back of Toledo in the division as they approach the last remaining third of the regular season. What will it take for them to make a real push and have a chance at the first seed in the division?
If you had told me, back before this winning streak started, that the Nailers would go on to win their next 12 in a row after the All-Star break and be in this position, I would ask you if you had forgotten your medication that morning.
Wheeling was coming off of possibly their roughest weekend of the season, lowlighted by a stunning loss to Indy in a game the Nailers were leading 7-2 in the third period (not that any of us want to remember that).
This team was outside of a playoff spot at that point, and it was hard to think they could put that out of their mind quickly enough to turn it around. I do remember saying at the time in my article that, although they were out of a spot, they were still in the race for the playoffs if they could find a way to turn it around, and boy did they ever.
This team has proven they are resilient and are never ready to give up on a game, no matter how things look. As I’ve said a few times this year, I like to look at a season like this in blocks, specifically nine distinct blocks of eight games each, and after the first two games with Utah, they will have completed six of those nine blocks of games.
In those remaining blocks, Wheeling only has two more games with Toledo, so if the Nailers hope to have a chance to catch them, they will definitely want to win both of those games. The good news is, Wheeling still has one more game against Reading this season (a team they are 8-0 against this year), three more with Iowa (3-1 on the year), and five more against Cincinnati (4-1 on the year).
Those are winnable games for Wheeling, and if they continue to play that strong against those teams, there’s no reason to believe they can’t catch Toledo and find a way to win a division title this season.
The Nailers return for another homestand next Friday through Sunday, with the country night game scheduled for Saturday against Kalamazoo. What are your thoughts on this promotion?
As I believe I said in this space last season when the country night game came along, I’m not a huge fan of country music.
However, I do know a number of people who do enjoy that type of music, and in speaking with them, they are very much looking forward to this game. One of my best friends lives out on the backroads of Brooke County (where I’m originally from) on about 10 acres of land, and if I was asked to define what I think a “country” individual is, he would certainly come to mind.
He’s been asking me for a few weeks now if I would be attending this game and if I would like to go with him, so I will most likely be there with him that night.
He has stated he really enjoys the music of the post-game concert artist, Jason Michael Carroll, so I’m sure we’ll most likely be hanging around to listen to the music and have a very fun evening.
If this sounds like something you would enjoy, I highly recommend you look into getting your tickets now and I’ll hopefully see you there for some good tunes and some even better hockey.
