The Nailers split their first two games against Adirondack this season last weekend, winning 3-0 on Friday before losing 3-1 on Saturday. What happened in these games that caused the split?
The Nailers will only play against the Thunder, a divisional opponent, only four times this season, with the next two coming over a weekend in March back in Wheeling. With how few games are scheduled to be played between these two this season, there can be a bit of a feeling out process each time they run into one another. Luckily, the Nailers were able to come away with at least one victory in this abbreviated series, with more to come later.
The first two periods of Friday’s game were uneventful when it came to the scoreboard. Both teams received opportunities on the power play (however abbreviated they may have been), but neither team could break through and the score didn’t change in the first 40 minutes of action.
In the third, the Nailers finally managed to break through just over eight minutes in, thanks to a nice shot by Aidan Sutter, son of Darryl Sutter and cousin of former Penguin Brandon Sutter, to give Wheeling the 1-0 lead. Six minutes later, Connor Lockhart got his team-leading eighth goal of the season to double the Nailers lead. The Thunder pulled their goalie late, but Brent Johnson found the open net to clinch the 3-0 victory for the visitors.
Wheeling picked up where they left off the night before on Saturday, scoring less than five minutes into the contest thanks to Brayden Edwards. Despite having 14 total shots in the period, the Nailers couldn’t manage to find the back of the net again, and the first period ended with them up 1-0.
The second period went much more in the favor of Adirondack, with them collecting 16 shots on goal in the period in addition to three power plays, with one of them being a 5-on-3. The Thunder finally got one in the Wheeling net on their final chance with the man advantage, and the game was tied going into the third.
The third period was much more evenly played until Adirondack once again got one in past Maxim Pavlenko with less than seven minutes left in regulation. The Nailers pulled their goalie late in the game to try to pull even, but just like Wheeling the night before, the Thunder managed to hit the open net and came away with the 3-1 victory.
The Nailers will now play their last two games against Greensboro this season on the road this Friday and Saturday. What does Wheeling need to do to come away with four points?
The Nailers find themselves going on the road this weekend to face the Gargoyles for the final time this season, games seven and eight between these two clubs on the year. Wheeling has managed to go 6-0-0 against Greensboro in their previous contests, but as it was pointed out by my friend DJ Abisalih in his excellent News and Notes column (which I highly recommend everyone reading right here on Lede News), five of those six contests were decided by two goals or less, with two of the games decided by two goals including empty netters by Wheeling, meaning it was a one-goal game prior to that.
The Gargoyles are working hard to not fall further behind the pack in the North Division, sitting in seventh place with 17 standings points through 23 games played. Three of the teams ahead of them (Maine, Adirondack, and Trois-Rivières) have games in hand on them as of now, meaning their leads could get expanded even further. Greensboro enters these two games on a five-game losing streak.
Something that is a bit surprising is just how bad the Gargoyles have been on home ice this season, accumulating a 2-7-2-1 record at home (as opposed to a 4-5-2-0 record in away games). When looking at the underlying stats, you can see why that could be possible. Their power play unit at home is the worst in the ECHL with a 2.9% success rate (one goal in 35 opportunities). At the other end of the spectrum, their penalty kill is the absolute best in the league on home ice, only allowing two goals on 34 times shorthanded for a 94.1% success rate.
Greensboro also has a -27-goal differential on the season, but their worst individual period by far is the third, with a -12 differential (19 goals for to 31 goals against). Wheeling has a positive goal differential in every period this year, but their highest is in the first, where they are a +13 (26 goals for to 13 goals against). The Nailers are starting strong in their games, while Greensboro finds themselves fading down the stretch. If Wheeling can come out hot again and take advantage of the Gargoyles when they slow, the Nailers could find themselves coming away with a season sweep of the new team.
The Nailers’ Taylor Gauthier, now playing in his fourth season in Wheeling, finds himself moving up the team goaltending rankings. How would you rank Goat among the best goalies in team history?
Taylor Gauthier, with or without the team records, has definitely entrenched himself in the minds of Nailer fans as one of the best to ever play for the team. He has earned at least one shutout in each of the four seasons spent in Wheeling, and his eight overall shutouts in his Nailer career ties him with Andy Franck for second in team history, just one behind team leader Peter Delmas. Goat has also now appeared in 90 regular season games in a Wheeling uniform, accumulating a record of 52-33-3 with a 2.29 goals-against average in those games.
This season, despite only playing in two games thus far, might be one of his strongest so far. Despite facing 52 shots on goal, he has only allowed one to get in past him, giving him a 0.50 goals-against average and a 0.981 save percentage. Wheeling has benefitted many times over the past four seasons from just how strong Gauthier is between the pipes, and I find myself hoping that this is finally the year he is able to lead them deep into the postseason, so that he can finally see the success there that he has experienced in the regular season thus far in his career.
After this weekend, the Nailers will have one more road game left on their season long six-game streak away from WesBanco Arena. How do the players deal with being on the road for so many games in a row?
I know there are many benefits to spending as much time on the road as the Nailers have already this season. But going 20 calendar days between games in the Friendly City can be enough to wear down just about any player. The only good news about it is that once they do return home, the Nailers will get to enjoy home cooking for eight straight games starting December 28th. When the Nailers reach the end of that home stretch, they will officially be exactly halfway through the 2025-26 regular season and will have somehow played more games at home (19) than on the road (17) at that point.
As for this stretch on the road, one of the benefits of being in a league like the ECHL is that there is time between series where teams can return home and get some practice time in their own arena as well as enjoy the chance to be in their own space for a few days before heading back out on the road again. So despite playing that many games in a row away from home, they weren’t really away from home that entire time. Plus, as I said, there are benefits to spending time on the road. You get the chance to spend time with your teammates without some of the distractions that come along with being at home. The bus ride between cities (or from Wheeling to whatever town they’re heading to) is a wonderful chance to develop as a group and spend time playing games or sharing stories. Creating a team environment is very important in team sports, and having this chance to travel together as much as they have in December can definitely help bring the guys together and build something going into the new calendar year.
The Nailers still find themselves in first place overall in the ECHL, with a chance to be the first team in the league to reach 20 wins with one more victory. What do you think has contributed the most to the success Wheeling has seen to this point?
With their loss last weekend, the Nailers’ point percentage finally slid below .800, down to 0.780. That is still the highest in the league, with the next highest belonging to the Florida Everblades at 0.750. That means for every point available to Wheeling this year, they are earning 0.78 of it. That is still an insanely high figure as we quickly approach the midpoint of the year and the All-Star proceedings down in Allen in January.
I know I said in a previous column that American Thanksgiving is seen as the first point where you can begin taking stock of where you can expect a team to end up for the season. Generally, the next one is the end of the calendar year/the midpoint of the season, as they normally are pretty close to one another. I know we still have a few weeks before we get there, but if the Nailers continue on the path they’re currently charting, they should find themselves playing meaningful games into April and beyond.
As for what has gotten them to this point, the biggest contributing factor is goaltending and just how deep that position has been this season. Jaxon Castor appeared in two games for the Nailers this year, going 2-0 in those games, but had the highest goals-against average (2.38) and lowest save percentage (0.904) of the four that have appeared between the pipes this year.
In addition to Gauthier (whom we discussed earlier), Jake Smith has been a revelation for Wheeling, going 7-0-1 with a 1.72 goals-against average and 0.943 save percentage. It will be nice to see him come back from his tryout for the Italian Olympic team and resume his dominance then. And of course, we also have Maxim Pavlenko, who has been sent to us by Wilkes-Barre/Scranton of the AHL, who has an 8-5-0 record with a 2.32 goals-against average and 0.918 save percentage. That is easily one of the most dominant goaltending groups we’ve seen in Nailer uniforms in a long while.
Of course, having good defense in front of them only helps them play their position well, and the entire Wheeling defense group only has two players with negative plus/minus stats, and both of them (Brent Johnson and Trevor LeDonne) are just a -1. These guys are playing strong defense in their zone and finding ways to turn it into offense and into goals.
On the front end, it’s impressive that we’ve reached 25 games played and still have yet to have a player hit double digit goals. The 85 goals scored by the Nailers this season have been recorded by 26 different players, which tells me they’re getting offense across the board and have confidence they can count on whomever is on the ice to create pressure and scoring opportunities. I can’t wait until they get back into town next week and I have a chance to see them in person again, and I look forward to seeing you at the rink.
