WHEELING, WV – On Wednesday night, the Wheeling Nailers showed why they have earned the nickname “Comeback Kids” with a third period come-from-behind win. Friday night, the South Carolina Stingrays showed the Nailers that they are not the only team who can play that game.
The Stingrays scored three unanswered goals in the final nine minutes of the third period to upend the Nailers 4-2 in front of an announced crowd of 3,347 at WesBanco Arena. South Carolina’s victory tied the best-of-seven Eastern conference finals series at two wins apiece, meaning there will be a trip back to North Charleston after Saturday’s now very important game five.
Rookie Brett Cameron scored what would be the game-winning goal on a power play – South Carolina’s first man advantage tally of the series – after Marcus Perrier tied the score off of a Wheeling turnover. David Pacan sealed the victory with a short-handed empty net goal with 1:17 left in regulation.
After taking game three in comeback fashion, Wheeling knew it had a chance to put a death grip on the series with a win on Friday. The Nailers also knew that South Carolina would be without a key player as Joe Devin was ill and did not dress, taking a clutch goal scorer out of the lineup.
The Nailers had a golden opportunity to run South Carolina out of the building early when a penalty to Pacan was followed by a double minor on Joey Leach, giving Wheeling 1:20 of five-on-three power play time as part of an almost five minute stretch of man advantage play. South Carolina’s penalty killers along with goalie Vitek Vanecek completely shut down the Wheeling power play, allowing just two shots on net during the stretch to keep the game scoreless.
At the other end of the ice, Nailers goalie Franky Palazzese was having a quiet first period, not facing much of anything in the way of shots until the midpoint of the frame. He was tested by Kelly Zajac with less than eight minutes left, needing to use his mask to fend off a hard shot by the Stingrays forward.
A scrum at the closing buzzer of the opening period led to South Carolina starting the second on the power play. When Wheeling’s Jarrett Burton was nabbed for tripping 52 seconds in, the Stingrays found themselves with a little over a minute of two-man advantage time. Like the visitors did in the first, the Nailers penalty killers stood tall, letting just one shot get to Palazzese on the way to killing both penalties.
Coming into the game, South Carolina had opened the scoring in the previous three contests. The Stingrays made it four-for-four when they lit the goal light first yet again. Austin Fyten made the key play, sending a stretch pass to Caleb Herbert. Herbert turned on the jets down the right wing side, getting enough open space to whip a shot past Palazzese’s blocker glove for his second of the series and ninth of the playoffs.
It took Wheeling just 62 seconds to answer with a goal of its own. The score came when Clark Seymour was able to thread a pass to the slot where Riley Brace got his stick on the puck and popped it past Vanecek for Brace’s fifth post-season goal.
Wheeling pressed for the lead goal, forcing the South Carolina netminder to be quick. The only shot that found its way past Vanecek came off the stick of John McCarron but it glanced off the crossbar and bounded away. Neither team came close to scoring the rest of way, sending the teams to the final frame deadlocked at one.
Less than a minute into the third, the Nailers took their first and only lead of the game. The play started with Brace taking a feed from Mathew Maione and busting through the defense. Brace got the puck to Loney who skated into the right circle and fired a shot between Vanecek’s legs for his fifth playoff goal.
Sensing that the next goal would make or break them, the Stingrays began to open up the game. It almost backfired when Wheeling’s Cody Wydo ended up with a breakaway. Wydo moved in and shot for the top corner but Vanecek got his arm and shoulder on the drive and knocked it into the air and onto the top of the net wher the young goalie was able to cover it for a face-off.
Vanecek’s stop became a game-saver, allowing his teammates time to find their offensive skates. With barely more than eight minutes left in regulation, Perrier intercepted a Wheeling clearing attempt. Perrier skated skated down the slot and stepped into a slap shot that blew past Palazzese for Perrier’s first goal of the playoffs and a tie score.
Three minutes later, Wheeling’s James Melindy was sent off for tripping, giving South Carolina its fifth power play of the game. Scoreless on the man advantage in the series, the Stingrays fought hard and it paid off when Zajac and Stephan Vigier combined to get control of a face-off in the Nailers defensive end. Zajac broke away from a scrum and headed toward the net where he fed the puck to Cameron. Cameron was able to elevate the puck over Palazzese, who was scrambling to try to make the save, for his fifth post-season tally and a lead the a Stingrays would not relinquish.
The Nailers fought hard down the stretch looking for the tying score but the South Carolina defense foiled them at every turn. A penalty to Fyten with 2:22 left in regulation gave Wheeling one last opportunity to send the game to overtime. The Nailers pulled Palazzese for an extra attacker and a two-man advantage but another costly turnover allowed Pacan to net a short-handed tally into the vacated net past a sliding Maione for his second of the playoffs to close the scoring.
Vanecek finished the night with 17 saves to puck up the victory. His counterpart Palazzese stopped 21 of the 24 shots he faced in a losing effort. Wheeling finished the night 0-for-4 on the power play while South Carolina went 1-for-5 with the man advantage.
Contact the author at Don.money@prohockeynews.com
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