WHEELING, WV – Vetetan players are expected to know when to make a play and what to do to get the job done. When that player is the son of a longtime college and professional coach, those expectations increase ten-fold.
Derek Army, son of well-known coach Tim Army, scored his third goal of the 2016 Kelly Cup playoffs with 6:26 left in regulation to give the Wheeling Nailers a come-from-behind 2-1 win over the South Carolina Stingrays in front of an announced crowd of 2,181 at WesBanco Arena. With the victory, the Nailers took a two games to one lead in the best-of-seven Eastern conference finals. Game four is scheduled for Friday night in Wheeling.
Wheeling scored twice in the final frame to collect its 21st comeback win of the 2015-16 season (regular and playoff), spoiling a 29-save effort by Stingrays goalie Vitek Vanecek. Nailers netminder Franky Palazzese notched 18 saves to pick up his second straight win.
Army’s goal came on what looked like an innocent play. The Nailers moved the puck into the South Carolina defensive zone in what appeared to be an even three-on-three situation. Riley Brace gave the puck to Army who, following an old coaching adage about any shot is a good shot, released a wrist shot that may have clipped a defender. Whether it did or not, the drive surprised Vanecek and slipped past his catching glove into the back of the net.
With the venue switching to the home ice of the Nailers, many observers expected Wheeling to come hard at the visiting Stingrays in the first period. That did happen but Vanecek was ready to pitch his third straight opening frame whitewash of the Nailers.
Thanks to a mid-period four-on-three man advantage, South Carolina picked up its game in the latter stages of the stanza. The Stingrays were able to put some pressure on Palazzese but nothing seemed to be of a really dangerous nature and the Nailers defense cleaned up most of the rebounds.
Vanecek had his best sequence late in the period when he made a quick blocker glove save on game two hero Jarrett Burton and seconds later using the toe of his skate to repel a shot by Brace. Thanks to the Stingrays netminder, the teams remained scoreless after one.
As much as the first period belonged to Vanecek, the second was primarily all about Palazzese. Early in the frame, he made a save and then held his breath as South Carolina’s Nick Jones just missed on the rebound. Moments later, David Pacan got in close and managed to get a shot between the goalie’s legs but the puck slid past the post and away from the net.
Palazzese later made a solid shoulder save on the Stingrays’ Austin Fyten. A couple of minutes later, Fyten got revenge when he took a pass from Caleb Herbert below the goal line and roofed a shot over Palazzese from just off the top of the crease for his seventh goal of the post-season. The tally extended his consecutive games with a point streak to seven while Herbert pushed his point streak to four games and teammate Pacan moved to six straight with a point by getting the secondary assist.
Thinking they had the Nailers on the ropes, the Stingrays turned up the heat in the minutes following the goal. Palazzese used his mask to deny Stephan Vigier of a score and soon after saw a shot by Fyten get past but heard the friendly clang of the post and saw the puck sail off into the corner.
Confident in its ability to turn a defeat into a win, Wheeling came out firing in the third period. Vanecek withstood the onslaught until the6:36 mark when the Nailers evened the score. It came on a pretty tic-tac-toe passing play that ended with Army feeding Burton who was cutting in front of the crease. He slipped the puck between Vanecek’s legs and then tapped it just over the goal line for his third playoff goal.
South Carolina had a chance to regain the lead shortly thereafter when Wheeling’s Shane Bakker was called for slashing. The Nailers killed off the penalty, gaining some momentum from the special teams play. Two and a half minutes after the successful kill, Army scored what proved to be the game-winning goal.
The Stingrays spent a good deal of time in the Nailers end of the ice over the remaining minutes. Despite the pressure, Wheeling’s defense played brilliantly, keeping much of the South Carolina attack away from the front of the net area.
Vanecek was pulled with 1:20 left in regulation to no avail as the Nailers held the Stingrays without a recorded shot on Palazzese in the final six minutes to secure the win.
Neither team was successful on the power play in the contest as both went 0-for-2. In the series, Wheeling is 1-for-10 while South Carolina has yet to score in ten chances.
South Carolina, which has now lost back-to-back games for the first time this playoff season, finds itself in a nearly must-win situation on Friday. Puck drop at WesBanco Arena is set for 7:35 pm.
Contact the author at Don.money@prohockeynews.com
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