ECHL Wheeling Nailers

Nailers say goodbye to long rivals

Published on March 13, 2010 under ECHL (ECHL)
Wheeling Nailers News Release


Johnstown, PA - The Wheeling Nailers won the 173rd and last game in their long and storied rivalry with the Johnstown Chiefs with a 4-1 victory Saturday night at the Cambria County War Memorial. The Chiefs are closing out their 22nd and last season in Johnstown and will move to Greenville, SC next season. Several Nailers fans travelled over from Wheeling to watch the historic last game and give their fond farewells to the Chiefs.

Wheeling and Johnstown have played against each other more than any two teams in ECHL history. The Nailers all-time record against the Chiefs finished at 92-60-21 and Wheeling also won the season series by going 6-1-3 against the Chiefs.

Lane Caffaro (1), Chris Davis (9), Aaron Clarke (20) and Colin Power (6) all lit the lamp in the win for Wheeling to improve their record to 29-28-6. Adam Berkhoel returned from a three week stint on the injured reserve to pick up the victory. Wheeling blasted a season-high 48 shots on goal in the contest just 2 games after they had set a previous season high of 46 shots against Trenton last Saturday.

The Nailers leap-frogged past Gwinnett in the American Conference race but remain two points back of 8th place Reading for the coveted last playoff spot as the Royals battled back to win in a shootout against Toledo.

Lane Caffaro scored his second ever professional goal and first as a Wheeling Nailer by cutting into open space in the left-wing circle and one-timing a give by Jordan Morrison from behind the goal to give the Nailers a 1-0 lead midway through the first period. The Slave Lake, Alberta native out of Union College had scored a goal earlier this season in the AHL with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton but this was his first in the ECHL.

Chris Davis picked up the rebound of an Aaron Clarke shot that was steered away by Chiefs goalie Kris Mayotte and stretched the lead to 2-0 in the 2nd period. It was the UMass-Amherst product's 9th of the season. Wheeling outshot Johnstown 14-7 in the 2nd period but the Chiefs had momentum at different points and miss-fired or completely fanned on a couple of great scoring opportunities as Berkhoel preserved the shutout through the first 40 minutes.

Aaron Clarke knifed his way in to the slot and went over the right shoulder of Mayotte for a top shelf goal early in the 3rd period on the power play to make it 3-0 in favor of the visitors. Clarke's 20th goal of the year establishes a new career high for the Peterborough, Ontario native. Clarke had 19 goals with the Nailers in 60 games in his rookie season of 2007-08.

Brian Kaufman's drive a little over a minute later somehow skipped past Berkhoel who may have been screened. Just a little over a minute after Clarke had made it 3-0 the Chiefs found themselves back in the game at 3-1 on the lone occasion that Berkhoel would get beaten.

Colin Power fired for the open net from just in front of the red-line standing next to the Chiefs bench and rattled it off the far-post and into the goal with 19 seconds remaining for the 4-1 final. The rookie out of St. Mary's University in Halifax, Nova Scotia recorded his 6th goal of the season. He also dropped the gloves earlier in the 3rd period and won a bout with Johnstown's Jeff Martens in the last of the many fights between the two teams over the years.

The Nailers begin a 5 game series with the Kalamazoo Wings at WesBanco Arena on Sunday March 14th at 3:05 that will feature a post-game open skate with Nailers players as part of every Sunday home game. Be sure to bring your skates and gloves...and don't forget your camera! It's also Guns and Hoses before the game. At 1:05 members of the Wheeling police and fire departments will skate against members of the Pittsburgh Police and Fire Departments.

Wheeling will travel to Kalamazoo for a pair of games on Wednesday, March 17 and Friday, March 19.

Check out the Wheeling Nailers Statistics

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