CRANBERRY, Pa. – A three-goal second period Saturday night was enough to lift the Wheeling Nailers into the next round of the ECHL Kelly Cup Playoffs.
Trailing the second-seeded Indy Fuel 1-0 after 20 minutes, a short-handed goal evened the score and swung the momentum in Wheeling’s favor and team captain Justin Addamo tipped in a pair of net-finders in an 8-minute span as the No. 3 Nailers eliminated the Fuel with a 4-2 victory in Game 5 of their best-of-7 Central Division semifinal series. The Nailers won the series 4-1.
Saturday’s game took place in front of a sellout crowd inside the UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex. It was a home game for Wheeling, as a scheduling conflict saw WesBanco Arena booked for the evening.
“We knew coming in it wasn’t going to be easy because it’s hard to end a team’s season,” Addamo said. “It was a good win for us and now we will set our focus on Toledo.”
With the win, their fourth straight over the Fuel after dropping the opening contest of the series, the Nailers will now play for the Central Division championship against top-seeded Toledo. The best-of-7 will begin Friday and Saturday at 7:15 pm inside the 8,000-seat Huntington Center with Games 1 and 2. Games 3, 4 and 5 will be played in Wheeling at WesBanco Arena on Wednesday, May 8, Friday , May 10 and Saturday, May 11. All games start at 7:10. Should a Game 6 be necessary, it will be played inside Indiana Farmers Coliseum in Indianapolis on Monday, May 13 at 7:15. Game 7, also if necessary, would also be played at 7:15 in the Hoosier State.
“I didn’t hate our (play in the) first period, but I didn’t love it,” Wheeling head coach Derek Army said. “Even though we were down 1-0, I thought we had some chances.”
Matt Koopman took a pass from David Jankowski on a 2-on-1 short-handed break and beat Indy goaltender Mitchell Weeks on the right side for a 1-1 tie just 2-minutes, 21-seconds into the middle period. Jankowski picked up a loose puck near center ice and sped down the right wing. When he reached the middle of the right face-off circle, he slid the puck through a Fuel defender and Koopman ticked the twine.
“That was a huge momentum swing. To get a goal like that short-handed…,” Army said of Koopman’s goal with teammate Lukas Svejkovsky in the penalty box for tripping. “Our penalty kill was fantastic in the series.”
Just over four minutes later, the Nailers took the lead for good when Addamo, the hero of Game 3 with the game-winning goal just 30 seconds into overtime, deflected a shot from Svejkovsky past Weeks on the power-play for a 2-1 advantage. Camped in front of the Fuel net, Addamo got his stick on a drive by Martel from the left circle.
Addamo made it 3-1 with another deflection – this time off a Svejkovsky shot from just inside the blue line – that Weeks never saw at 14:04. David Drake logged the other assist.
“That’s my job to get in front of the net and do what I can do to distract the goalie,” the 6-6, 248-pound Addamo, the No. 1 star of the game, said. ”
Indy cut the deficit to 3-2 in the final minute of the middle period on a goal by Santino Centorame, but would get no closer.
Indy kept the pressure on in the third period, earning a 13-5 advantage in shots, but Wheeling’s Jaxon Castor continued to stand tall between the pipes.
“That’s my job,” he said after being named the game’s No. 2 star after recording 37 stops on 39 shots. “Our team is mentally tough. You saw that after we got scored on first. I’ve been preaching that we are mentally tougher than they were. “I’m really proud of the guys and glad to be part of this team.”
Koopman, the No. 3 star, sent the puck into the empty net from three-quarters ice with 52 seconds remaining to ice the game, and the series.
“We will celebrate this win tonight and then turn our focus to Toledo,” Army said.
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