ECHL Wheeling Nailers

T.J. Fox scores his second in Nailers setback

Published on October 17, 2009 under ECHL (ECHL)
Wheeling Nailers News Release


Duluth, Georgia -

T.J. Fox scored for the second night in a row but the Wheeling Nailers fell to 0-2 in a 4-1 loss at the Gwinnett Gladiators Saturday night. Playing at a team's home opener for the second night in a row the Nailers were unable to break the emotional boost the hosts received from large opening night turnouts.

Special teams appeared to make the difference in this game as the Nailers had difficulty staying out of the box. Gwinnett went 2-for-9 on the power play while the Nailers were 0-for-4.

Jordan Alford got the starting nod in goal and made 32 saves on 35 shots in the losing cause. It's Alford's 4th game for the Nailers dating back to last season who still has yet to play a game at home. Alford is a Red Deer, Alberta native who is a product of R.P.I. in Troy, NY where he was teammates and roommates with Nailers alternate captain Andrew Lord.

Lord was a highlight for the Nailers in the first period delivering 4 or 5 hits.

Former Dayton Bombers forward Tom Zanoski led the attack for the Gladiators with 2 goals and 2 assists including the game-winner and later tallying an empty-netter with 10 seconds left to finish the night. Gwinnett outshot the Nailers 36-15 on the contest.

Drew Paris started the scoring for Gwinnett at 3:49 of the 1st on a cross-ice feed from the left-wing corner by Zanoski to the right-wing face-off dot where Paris slammed home the one-timer.

T.J. Fox would equalize the score at 7:20 of the 2nd period on big one-time slapper from the high slot perhaps beating Gwinnett goalie Josh Johnson five-hole. Fox took the cross-ice feed from Thomas Beauregard for the goal and Jim Sharrow also assisted on the play. T.J. Fox (no relation to Jordan Fox also of the Nailers) spent the last two seasons in the San Jose Sharks organization with their AHL team in Worcester, Mass. The Union College product hails from Oswego, N.Y.

Zanoski would give the Gladiators the lead again 4 minutes later on the power play with a blast from the right-wing dot that Alford got a stick on but was unable to keep out of the net.

Matt Caruana scored for Gwinnett at 5:09 in the 3rd to make it 3-1.

The Nailers killed off a 5-on-3 advantage for the Gladiators with 4 minutes to go and then pulled Alford for an extra attacker with a little over a minute remaining. Wheeling drove towards the goal a couple times but were denied by Gwinnett's hustling defensemen.

Zanoski raced away with it in the clear and was yanked down from behind. By rule when a player is interfered with when he's in the clear on an empty-net scoring chance there is no penalty shot awarded and instead the player is credited with the goal.

Zanoski's second goal of the night with 10 seconds remaining sealed the victory for the Gladiators who improved to 1-0.

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ECHL Stories from October 17, 2009


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