ECHL Wheeling Nailers

Nailers and Cyclones Playoffs Tied at 2-2

Published on April 15, 2009 under ECHL (ECHL)
Wheeling Nailers News Release


Wheeling, WV - The Cincinnati evened the North Division Semifinal Kelly Cup Playoff series with a 4-3 win over the Nailers at WesBanco Arena Wednesday night. Strangely, the home team has yet to win in this series as the Nailers won games 1 and 2 in Cincinnati last Thursday and Friday only to have the Cyclones seize ‘away ice advantage' in games 3 and 4 in Wheeling on Saturday and Wednesday.

The Nailers will try to turn that stat on its ear Friday night as they host a pivotal game 5 at 7:35.

A late Wheeling comeback effort closed the score to 4-3 before the Nailers simply and unfortunately ran out of time. Aaron Clarke scored a pair of goals for the Nailers and Tommy Goebel had the other. Both players spent significant time in the AHL this season after beginning the year in Wheeling and were great additions to the Nailers roster for the playoff run. Clarke had arrived in Wheeling after his 4th AHL call-up. The last one for him was to Albany where he played in 22 games. Goebel had two different stretches with the Baby Penguins in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton.

Cincinnati got the early jump on the Nailers as they benefitted from a pair of power play goals by Matt Syrocznski just 73 seconds apart. Syroczynski is one of the handful of returning members from last year's Kelly Cup Championship team and now has 4 goals in the series. His back to back goals were 5-on-3 and then 5-on-4 as the Cyclones took a 2-0 lead. After that the Cyclones didn't get many solid 1st period opportunities as the Nailers outshot the visitors in the opening frame 10-8 but couldn't get the puck past Cincy netminder Loic Lacasse.

Wheeling got an early 2nd period tally from Tommy Goebel, his 2nd of the postseason, to cut the gap to 2-1. The initial shot by Cashman was deflected wide but the puck came back up to the slot for Goebel to fire it home at 1:11.

Mitch Ganzak took a pair of penalties to give Cincinnati 4 minutes on the power play but this time the Nailers penalty kill stood tall and disposed of the Cyclones advantage rather expediently.

Late in the 2nd period the Nailers would go on the power play with a great chance to tie the game at 2-2. But Cincinnati was able to race back on a shorthanded rush and Brian O'Hanley dropped it on the doorstep for Dustin Sproat to chip in his 3rd goal of the postseason instead thus giving the Clones a 3-1 lead.

Jimmy Kilpatrick scored early in the 3rd period to push the Cyclones advantage to 4-1 as he knifed his way into the slot and was able to fire a quick wrister past Darling.

Wheeling wasn't finished and would storm back to close the gap to one goal before eventually just running out of time.

Aaron Clarke took a pass to him on the left-wing hashmark and rapidly wheeled around to blast a shot home at 9:30 of the 3rd to cut the margin to 4-2.

The Nailers had a few more good chances in the closing minutes of the 3rd but couldn't get the bounces to fire it home. The clock ticked down during a long stretch with no whistles and the Nailers found themselves still down by 2 with less than 2 minutes remaining when they pulled goalie Curtis Darling.

Tommy Goebel took an elbowing minor with 1:19 remaining to put the Nailers in a shorthanded position but they pulled Darling again to even the sides at 5-on-5 with the empty-net behind them. Kelly Miller from the right wing wall fired a terrific cross-ice feed to Aaron Clarke on the back door on the left-wing side of the crease for the easy tap-in.

The score was cut to 4-3 but there were only 28 seconds left to work with and the Nailers unfortunately couldn't mount any significant threats from there as Cincinnati would hang on for the 4-3 decision.

Game 5 of the series is Friday night at WesBanco Arena in Wheeling at 7:35.

Games 6 and 7 will be in Cincinnati at US Bank Arena on Saturday and Monday nights. Game-time each night is set for 7:30.

Post-season playoff packages are available now. Purchase your 6-game playoff package that is good for the entire post-season. You get a discount vs. the gate price and any unused playoff credits are forwarded to the following season.

Season tickets are on sale now for the 2009-10 campaign. Reserve your season ticket for as low as $50. There are some great incentives to reserve your season ticket ahead of time. If you pay for your season ticket in full by May 1 the Nailers will give you free parking in the back lot for the season. Those who deposit $100 by May 1 will have the $18 arena fee waived.

For more information contact the Nailers at 304-234-GOAL (that's 234-4625) or log on at wheelingnailers.com.

Check out the Wheeling Nailers Statistics

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ECHL Stories from April 15, 2009


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