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ECHL Wheeling Nailers

This Week in Nailers Hockey

November 7, 2005 - ECHL (ECHL)
Wheeling Nailers News Release


NAILERS VS. TOLEDO (Friday, November 11): The Wheeling Nailers and the Toledo Storm meet for the second time in as many weeks at the Sports Arena. Wheeling downed Toledo last Friday 6-4, in Wheeling. The game is a match up of the two top teams point wise in the Northern Division. Toledo is 5-2-1 with a current 2-game winning streak. Sunday they handed Reading there first regulation loss. The Storm has been particularly tough at home going 4-0-1. Toledo features three of the top six scorers in the ECHL, Scooter Smith (14pts), Ken Magowan (13pts.), and Todd Jackson (13pts.) headline the high scoring Storm. The Storm are led by second year head coach Nick Vitucci who last year he led the Storm to a record of 41-26-2-3 picking up Coach of the Year honors. Toledo is the AHL affiliate of the Grand Rapids Griffins, Cleveland Barons and the NHL affiliate of the Detroit Red Wings and San Jose Sharks.

NAILERS VS. JOHNSTOWN (Saturday-Sunday, November 12-13): The Wheeling Nailers make the short 118 mile trip to War Memorial to take on the Chiefs just a week after winning 4-2 in Central Pennsylvania. Johnstown (0-4-3) is still searching for there first win of the season. The Chiefs are 0-1-3 in 1-goal games. Johnstown is the AHL affiliate of Syracuse and the NHL affiliate of Tampa Bay.The Chiefs are led by first year head coach Frank Anzalone. The Chiefs finished out of the playoff picture last year with a record of 22-36-0-7.

NAILERS BROADCAST INFO: Tune in as the voice of the Nailers, Gary Sharp delivers all of the Nailers action on The Mix WKWK 97.3 and selected games airing on ESPN Radio Pittsburgh 1250AM. Fans can also watch or listen in on the Nailers website. The broadcast begins 20 minutes prior to face-off.

THE COACH IS TALKING AND YOU CAN TO

Join Head Coach Glenn Patrick and Gary Sharp every Thursday for "Nail Talk" at Generations. The hour-long show will be carried on WWVA 1170AM beginning at 7pm. Players, coaches, special guests, phone calls, and more will highlight the fast paced 60 minute show.

Pull Up a Chair: In conjunction with B2 Networks and the ECHL, live video of every Nailers game this season will be offered through a link at wheelingnailers.com. Any fan worldwide with a high-speed internet connection will be able to watch the action for just $6, while listening to Gary Sharp's play-by-play.

NAILER ACTION LAST WEEK Nailers 6 vs. Toledo 4 (Friday, November 4): The Nailers scored 3 goals in the first period and held on to move into first place. Arphad Mihaly and Brendon Hodge each recorded 3 points.

Nailers 4 @ Johnstown 2 (Saturday, November 5): Andy Franck made his professional debut in net stopping 27 of 29 shots and Brendon Hodge closed things out with an empty net goal to finish the hat trick.

Nailers 7 vs. Victoria 3 (Sunday, November 6): Wheeling fell behind 2-0, and then scored 6 unanswered goals to win going away. Thirteen different players picked up points.

Best of Wheeling: The 6-1 start is the best ever in Wheeling's ECHL hockey history. The current group of Nailers has won six in a row, which is the longest streak in two years. The streak is tied with Idaho for the longest this year in the ECHL. The longest winning streak in team history was set in the 2004 season with twelve in a row.

Comparing 2004 to 2005: Last year thru the first 7 games the record was 4-3, this year 6-1. Last year in the first 7 games the Nailers scored 15 goals, this year 34.

Hodge you do that?: Brendon Hodge recorded the first hat trick of the season on Saturday at Johnstown. The third year Nailer had an impressive weekend with 4 goals for 7 points. Hodge also was a + 5. Hodge failed to record a goal till this past weekend and now has 41 career Nailer goals in 144 games.

Offensive Explosion: The Nailers just wrapped up a weekend where they scored 17 goals. So far, in 7 games Wheeling has found the back of the net 34 times. The average of 4.86 goals per game leads the ECHL. Wheeling has failed to score less than 4 goals only once and that was the season opening loss in Trenton (5-3). The 7 scored on Sunday against Victoria was a season high.

Collins claims honor: Forward Sean Collins was named the ECHL Offensive Rookie of the Month for October. Collins, led rookies in scoring with 10 points. The rookie of the month jinx may have gotten to Collins this past weekend when in the first two games he failed to record a point or a shot on net. But things changed on Sunday against Victoria when he scored and assisted on a goal. Collins has 5 goals on only 8 shots.

Don't call me Don McLean: All rookie forward Kurtis McLean does is score. An All-American at Norwich University, McLean totaled 212 points in 115 games. He then had 3 points in 4 pro games last year with Richmond (UHL). In his first 7 games with Wheeling McLean has 5 goals to go along with 12 points with a 7 point past weekend factored in. Over the last 126 games he has played, McLean has 229 points. McLean and Collins each lead Wheeling with 12 points and 5 goals.

Andy Squared: Andy Chiodo has started all but one game for Wheeling and is tied for the league lead with 5 wins. Chiodo sat out his first game on Saturday night in Johnstown giving way to rookie Andy Franck. Franck, from Lakewood, Ohio, stopped 27 of the 29 shots he faced in the 4-2 victory. It was Franck's professional debut after a 3-year career at Mercyhurst.

WesBanco been very good to Nailers: Since the 2003-04 season the Nailers have gone 55-16-5 on home ice. Wheeling is perfect in the four games this year at home.

Konopka tallies his first: Former Wheeling Nailer, Zenon Konopka made his NHL debut last week in Anaheim and scored his first professional goal Sunday night against Minnesota. Konopka played in Wheeling during the 2002-03 season compiling a 70 point season.

Next Week: The Nailers have a light week with only one game at Trenton on Friday, November 18th..

Get Your Tickets: Tickets for all 36 Nailers regular season home games can be purchased in person at WesBanco Arena and all Ticketmaster locations, by phone through the Nailers office at 304-234-GOAL/1-877-NAIL-TIX. Full season tickets, 18 and 10-game packages, and group ticket packages starting as low as $66 are available through the Nailers office at 304-234-GOAL.

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The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.

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