ECHL Wheeling Nailers

Nailers vs. IceMen Game Day Snap Shot

Published on November 14, 2015 under ECHL (ECHL)
Wheeling Nailers News Release


Lighting it Up at Home

The Wheeling Nailers earned their fourth home win of the season on Friday night, as they rocked the Reading Royals, 6-1 at WesBanco Arena. Mike Gunn opened the scoring with his first professional goal, before Reading rebounded to even the contest. However, it was all Nailers from that point on, as the local squad netted the next five goals, blowing the game open. Jarrett Burton broke the tie with the first of his two tallies on the night, which was followed up by Patrick McGrath 14 seconds later. McGrath recorded his first career two-goal game, and also mixed in a fighting major. Riley Brace had four points, including the final marker, which gave Wheeling 13 goals in two home tilts this week. Franky Palazzese picked up his second straight win between the pipes, making 27 saves.

More East Than West to Start

The Evansville IceMen switched conference during the summer, as they are now part of the Western Conference's Midwest Division. Despite the change, the IceMen will be playing their fifth and sixth non-conference games, when they travel to Wheeling on Saturday and Sunday. Evansville has an identical 1-3-0 record against each conference, following a 4-2 loss at Kalamazoo on Friday. After falling behind the Wings, 2-0, the IceMen clawed back to tie the score on goals by Tyson Fawcett and Chris Rumble. However, the tie didn't last long, as Dane Fox put Kalamazoo ahead to stay, despite a 35-shot attack by the visitors. Fawcett's goal was his third of the season, tying him with former Nailer Daultan Leveille for the team lead. Christoffer Bengtsberg made his fifth straight start in goal, turning aside 26 of the 29 shots he faced.

Burton is Among the Best

Jarrett Burton has been one of the hottest players on Wheeling's roster to start the 2015-16 season, as his two-goal performance on Friday was his second of the season, lifting his goal total to eight and his point total to 11. The eight goals are tied for the most in the ECHL, along with Florida's Mike Aviani, who has played in three more games. Jarrett was one of six Nailers to record a multiple point night on Friday, joining Riley Brace (1-3-4), Patrick McGrath (2-0-2), Anton Zlobin (0-2-2), Adam Krause (0-2-2), and Brett Stern (0-2-2). Burton and Brace are at the top of the team leaderboard with 11 points, along with Derek Army, who just made his AHL debut in Portland. Stern has had at least one point in all three games this week, giving him seven total points, to pull into a tie with Clark Seymour.

Schedules Starting to Fill Up

Wheeling and Evansville will both be playing their first sets of three games in three days this weekend, after a relatively light schedule in the first four weeks of the regular season. Saturday night will already be the Nailers' fourth game of the week, after playing four consecutive sets of back-to-back weekend contests. Wheeling has posted a 2-1-0 record thus far, and will be looking for its third straight win on home ice. The IceMen have played the fewest games in the ECHL, as only they and the Manchester Monarchs have yet to reach the 10-game mark. Evansville took the ice once each during the first two weeks of the campaign, then played a two-game week, followed by three games in four days last week, going 1-2-0, with the win coming in the middle. The Nailers will be playing their seventh consecutive different opponent on home ice, while the IceMen, who have played three of their four home games against Indy, will be visiting their fifth different city in a row.

Two Here, and That's All

Friday night marks the first of two head-to-head meetings between the Nailers and IceMen, with both battles scheduled to take place at WesBanco Arena this weekend. Wheeling was one of the few teams that Evansville had success against in 2014-15, as the IceMen picked up three of their 15 wins versus the Nailers. Three of last season's four tilts took place in Southwest Indiana, after three of four games the previous year occurred in West Virginia. Since Evansville joined the ECHL at the start of the 2012-13 season, each club has won a season series, lost a season series, and there was one split, leading to overall numbers that favor the IceMen, 6-5. Home ice has played a big factor in the all-time series, as Wheeling is 4-2-0 at WesBanco Arena and Evansville is 4-1-0 at Ford Center. The Nailers will play a total of six games against teams from the Hoosier State in 2015-16.

Paul's the hero of this story, right? He has to get to Rome, and his words are going to keep the crew working to make sure that happens.

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