ECHL Wheeling Nailers

Nailers Storm Past K-Wings 10-1

Published on February 6, 2010 under ECHL (ECHL)
Wheeling Nailers News Release


Wheeling, WV-- The Nailers showed no sign of fatigue after their adventurous journey back from Elmira with their largest margin of victory 10-1 against the Kalamazoo Wings in a record setting game Saturday evening.

T.J. Fox led the Nailers and tied an all time Wheeling organizational record with 7 points (2g 5a) last done by Jordan Morrison (2g 5a) last year. He became the 5th Wheeling Nailer to notch 7 points in a game and learned of his record when it was announced over the P.A. system to the WesBanco Arena crowd. He also tied a Wheeling record with 5 assists in a game also last accomplished by Jordan Morrison on Dec 26, 2008 against Reading.

Special thanks to all the fans who joined us at the game after the storm had passed over. Also special thanks to all the hard working crews in WV, PA and OH for cleaning up the roads and making it possible for us to have the game in the first place.

While T.J. Fox led the way with his 7 points, Thomas Beauregard (2g 3a), Aaron Clarke (2g 1a), Jordan Fox (1g 2a), Blair Yaworski (1g), Colin Power (1g) and Chris Davis (1g) as well as Alex Grant (3a) and Kevin Schmidt (3a) all got in the scoring column in the rout. In all, 11 different Nailers notched at least one point.

The Nailers passed up a 3 power play goal high in 2009-10 and went 5-7 on the man advantage and killed off 4 Wings power plays.

The win vaulted the Wheeling Nailers up three notches in the American Conference standings as they went from 7th to 4th passing Kalamazoo, Toledo and Florida. The Nailers also moved from 4th up to 2nd place in the North Division while extending their home-ice win streak to 4 games.

After the team's bus suffered mechanical difficulties in Pittsburgh coming back from Elmira, the team's Presidents, Rob and Jim Brooks, shuttled the players from I-79 in Pittsburgh back to Wheeling a few bodies at a time. Wheeling left Elmira after the Friday night game at 11pm and then were stuck on I-79 in Pittsburgh for much of the early morning. After a long day of commuting all the guys back and forth all the Nailers players eventually made it back to Wheeling in time for that evening's game.

The fans who came out on the snowy Saturday enjoyed quite the treat and Wheeling stormed Kalamazoo goalie Jeremy Duchesne for 10 big goals capped off by a 4 goal flurry in less than 3 minutes in the 3rd period to hit double digits.

The Nailers came away with a 4-0 lead after the first. Blair Yaworski (10) and Aaron Clarke (14) had back to back goals 3:00 into the first that gave the Nailers an early 2-0 lead. Clarke has 14 goals, 19 assists for 33points and is 1st in the ECHL with 3 shorthanded goals.

Jordan Fox connected with Thomas Beauregard who fired it in past Jeremy Duchesne for his 29th of the year to stretch Nailers lead 3-0 at 11:51.

Thomas Beauregard made a nice centering pass that went past Jordan Fox in the crease and found T.J. Fox on the back door. T.J. slam it in on the Nailers power play for his 18th of the year that gave the Nailers a 4-0 lead with 17 seconds left in the first.

Mitch Versteeg worked his way in for an unassisted goal 9:53 into the second that finally got Kalamazoo on the board 4-1.

A pair of back to back power play goals put the Nailers up 6-1.

T.J. Fox centered from the goal line for Beauregard who lit the lamp for a Nailers power play goal, his second of the evening and 30th of the year. Beauregard leads the Nailers (30g 20a) and is 3rd in the league in goals.

T.J. Fox backhand scooped it in around Duchense for his second goal and 5th point of the game on the power play and the Nailers led 6-1 after two periods of play. T.J. Fox has 9 points in his last 5 games (4g, 5a).

The Nailers scored 4 goals in less than 3 minutes in the third.

Mitch Ganzak carried it in deep and Colin Power chipped it in for his 4th of the year and 2nd of the week that gave the Nailers a 6 goal lead 7-1 at 6:11.

Aaron Clarke caught Duchesne off guard and got one in for his 15th of the year, 8-1 Nailers at 7:01.

Jordan Fox redirected it home on a power play blast from Alex Grant for a 5-on-3 goal. 19 seconds later Yaworski in the left-wing found Chris Davis who finished it off, his 7th of the year for a final score of 10-1 with back to back power play goals.

The Nailers improve to 26-20-3 and moved into 4th in the Conference with 55 points only one point behind 3rd place Charlotte Checkers.

Wheeling is 2-1-1 against Kalamazoo this season. They will next meet in mid-March when they begin a stretch of 5 games against each other in a crucial late season drive with all the teams jockeying for playoff positioning.

The Nailers are back in action with a morning game Tuesday for the first Education Field Trip day with an 11:05am start time. Tickets are free for all students and teachers when the Nailers play the Johnstown Chiefs at 11:00am. All the kids will be receiving an educational book and will quizzed on the material they learn at the game when they return to the classroom.

That Tuesday morning game is also a Business Man's Special with all upper bowl seats available for only $10.

Next Friday and Saturday, February 12 and 13 the Nailers host Elmira for a pair of games including a Friday Family Four-Pack night followed by Mini-Stick giveaway night for the first 1,000 kids courtesy of Tim Horton's.

Call the Nailers at 304-234-GOAL or toll-free at 1-877-NAIL-TIX. Get your tickets online at the team's website at wheelingnailers.com

Check out the Wheeling Nailers Statistics

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ECHL Stories from February 6, 2010


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