WHEELING, WV – One year ago to the date, the Wheeling Nailers trailed the Toledo Walleye by two goals with four minutes left in the second period of game three of their first round playoff series. The Nailers proceeded to score three unanswered to win the game by a 5-4 final at the WesBanco Arena.
Friday night, Wheeling faced a similar deficit and the possibility of being pushed to the brink of elimination by the Florida Everblades. Once again the Nailers summoned the hockey gods and came away with an epic victory. 
Riley Brace capped a furious comeback by breaking a third period tie to lift Wheeling to a dramatic 5-4 win over Florida in front of an announced crowd of 2,374 at WesBanco Arena. John McCarron scored twice and added an assist to go with Brace’s three point game as the Nailers evened the best-of-seven series at two wins each with game five set for Saturday night in Wheeling.
If the Everblades lose the series, they will look back at Friday’s loss as the key to it all. Florida held a three goal lead three minutes into the second period and led by two to start the third before witnessing the Nailers comeback. The Everblades also failed on eight power play opportunities including almost two full minutes of five-on-three man advantage time.
Wheeling head coach David Gove made the decision to start Brian Foster in net instead of Franky Palazzese who had been pulled in Wednesday’s game three loss. Foster paid his coach back early on with a diving save on a rebound attempt by Florida’s Greg Gibson.
The Everblades opened the scoring on their fifth shot of the game. It came when Brendan O’Donnell managed to find the puck out of a scramble and went top corner on Foster for his third goal of the series. As it turned out, the O’Donnell tally was the lone score of the first period.
The one-goal margin held by Florida at the break quickly became three early in the second. At the 2:39 mark, Ryan Martindale picked off an errant Wheeling pass and broke into the Nailers defensive zone on an odd-man rush. Instead of making a pass he chose to shoot and ripped a drive into the back of the net for his third post-season score.
Thirteen seconds later, Martindale was the set-up man as he dropped a pass into the slot for Matt Williws who went top corner to Foster’s left. Willows’ second of the series gave the Everblades what looked like a comfortable 3-0 lead.
Things looked like they were going from bad to worse for Wheeling when overlapping penalties to Ty Loney, Brace and McCarron allowed Florida to spend an extended period with a five-on-three power play. The Nailers held the Everblades to just two shots on net during the sequence, bringing the home crowd to its feet and generating an amazing amount of energy in the building.
The Nailers parlayed the crowd’s enthusiasm into some offensive pressure that forced a penalty on Florida’s Logan Roe. Wheeling’s power play took advantage when McCarron redirected a shot from the point by Mathew Maione through the legs of Everblades goalie Anthony Peters at the 12:04 mark.
Two minutes later, the continued Wheeling pressure led to another Nailers score. This time it was Loney who was in the right place to jam home the loose puck for his first goal of the playoffs.
A set of matching penalties that came at the same time as Loney’s goal put the teams at four-on-four. One minute later, an offensive zone turnover by Wheeling allowed Florida to have a four-on-one breakout. Once in the Nailers end, Willows put a pass on the stick of Danny New who clanged a shot off the crossbar and in for his second of the series and a 4-2 lead for the visitors.
A late middle period penalty on Wheeling’s Maione had the Everblades on the power play to start the third frame. The Nailers came out aggressively and cashed in when McCarron curled in the Florida end and lifted a shot over Peters for a short-handed goal at the 29 second mark.
Once again the crowd came alive and the Nailers fed off of the energy. Wheeling spent much of the subsequent eighty seconds buzzing around the Florida net. The pressure resulted in Cody Wydo digging out a loose puck and shoving it across the goal line for his third of the series and a tie game.
The home team was now firing on all cylinders and the Everblades were feeling the heat big time. That heat became a five-alarm fire when Brace unleashed a bomb from the blueline that beat Peters at the 7:38 mark to give Wheeling its first – and only – lead of the night.
With more than half of the final period still left to be played, Foster and the defensive effort of the Nailers became a huge story. Despite the Evetblades having their seventh and eighth power plays in the final seven minutes, Foster remained calm between the pipes while his teammates blocked every shot they could get to. The combined effort resulted in a clean sheet in the third period when the Nailers needed it most.
Wheeling finished the game with a 31-29 shot advantage and connected once in four power play chances. Foster made 25 saves to earn the win while Florida’s Peters ended the night with 26 saves in a losing effort.
The two teams will have a quick turnaround with game five’s puck drop set for 7:35 pm on Saturday. They will then get to fly back to southwest Florida for what will be a potential elimination game for Saturday’s loser at Germain Arena on Monday.
Contact the author at Don.money@prohockeynews.com
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