Nailers halt Blades’ win streak 6-5
Bad news came in threes Wednesday night for the Florida Everblades.
The Wheeling Nailers scored three times in the opening moments of the first and second periods, then held on to edge the Everblades 6-5 at Germain Arena.
Wheeling led 6-2 early in the second period before the Blades nearly clawed back to tie it in the final moments.
“You score five goals, you ought to win a hockey game,” Everblades coach Greg Poss said.
“Too many individual mistakes,” Poss said. “The first five (Wheeling) goals were all individual mistakes. We made a really good effort to try to come back, and I thought we had two, three really good chances to tie the game. You just can’t afford to give up easy goals like that.”
Wheeling, in first place in the ECHL North Division, took the opener of a three-game set against South Division-leading Florida (11-5). The Nailers extended their winning streak to five games while ending Florida’s five-game streak.
Brant Harris had two goals for the Blades, his team’s fourth and fifth of the night. The two goals tied Harris for the team lead with eight.
“We had our chances to win that game, but when you go down four goals in the second period it’s tough to come back,” Harris said. “Yeah, we turned it on, but when you give a team that kind of a lead it’s tough to get back in the game. We came close, but not close enough.”
Florida pulled goalie Anthony Peters for a sixth attacker with about 50 seconds remaining, but couldn’t score the equalizer.
The Everblades have had some slow starts in games this season. The problem Wednesday night was running into a team fully prepared to take advantage.
The Nailers put the Blades into a 3-0 hole in a hurry. John McCarron, Harrison Ruopp and Jarrett Burton beat Peters with three of the Nailers’ first four shots of the night, all less than five minutes into the game.
“The first period we weren’t hitting and thought it would be easy,” Poss said. “We got down 3-0 early. It’s our own fault.”
Gabriel Desjardins got the Blades on the board with 1:02 remaining in the first. Defenseman Matt Stanisz ripped a slap shot from just inside the blue line past Wheeling goaltender Franky Palazzese with just over eight seconds remaining before intermission. It was Stanisz’s first goal.
Less than a minute into the second period, Wheeling’s Zack Torquato scored an unassisted goal to make it 4-2. McCarron scorched Peters on a power-play goal three minutes later. Then it was 6-2 mere seconds later as Ty Logan scored.
For McCarron, who had one goal on the season coming in, it was his first professional two-goal game.
Ethan Werek scored an unassisted goal for the Blades in the second period, his fifth of the year. Harris’ seventh of the year narrowed the margin to 6-4 in the second. He picked up a power-play goal in the third to bring the Florida within a goal.
The Everblades get two more shots at the Nailers this weekend.
“It’s a nine-period game with them realistically,” Harris said. “You’ve got to set the tone every period. Just because they’re up, or we’re close or we’re down doesn’t mean you can take periods off. Maybe you can translate it into wins in the next couple of games.”
“What we need to take from this is that we need to come out physical,” Poss said. “More focused, not making individual mistakes.”
Florida’s Matt Corrente received a game misconduct penalty late in the third period.
Florida had a 5-on-3 advantage twice in the second period, but couldn’t convert. Poss said part of the problem there was losing faceoffs. The Blades currently have only one center on the roster.
NOTES: Wednesday night’s game was Wheeling’s first appearance at Germain Arena since 2011. The Everblades lost one forward and gained another since the team’s last game Saturday. Mike Aviani, who was leading the team with eight goals, was loaned to San Jose of the American Hockey League. Aviani shared the team scoring lead (15 points) with Matt Marquardt and Matt Willows. Carter Sandlak was shipped to Florida from Charlotte of the AHL. Sandlak played in three games with the Everblades last season. The Blades entered Wednesday’s game leading the ECHL in power-play percentage and in penalty-killing percentage.?