NORTH CHARLESTON, SC – With six minutes left in the third period of Saturday’s second game of the ECHL’s Eastern conference finals, the South Carolina Stingrays had what looked like an insurmountable three goal lead over the Wheeling Nailers. As it turned out, the Nailers had the Stingrays right where they wanted them.
Wheeling scored three times in those final six minutes to tie the game before Jarrett Burton scored a power play goal 5:03 into the second overtime as the Nailers came away with a stunning 4-3 win in front of an announced crowd of 3,564 at the North Charleston Coliseum. The win evened the best-of-seven series at one win each as the teams head north to West Virginia for game three on Wednesday.
Burton’s man-advantage tally came after South Carolina had four power play chances of its own in the two extra periods. Nailers goalie Franky Palazzese kept the Stingrays off the board through all of it as he made a total of 32 saves – 11 in the two overtimes – to get the win.
Up until the final minutes of regulation, the host Stingrays looked like they were in a position to sweep its first two home games. After weathering an early push by Wheeling, Sourh Carolina began to pick up the offense thanks to overlapping Nailers penalties that created a 32-second two-man advantage.
In the final minute of the first period, the Stingrays struck first when Colton Saucerman threaded a pass to Austin Fyten who had gotten behind the Wheeling defense. Fyten broke in alone, made a couple of stick handling moves and slid the puck between Palazzese’s legs with 46.7 seconds before the intermission.
The teams traded jabs for much of the second period with Palazzese and South Carolina’s Vitek Vanecek matching saves. The pair of netminders had things well under control until the final four minutes of the middle frame when the Stingrays appeared to administer a knockout double punch.
The first blow came with 3:25 left in the stanza when Brett Cameron drove into the Wheeling defensive zone and fired a shot that Palazzese stopped. Cameron followed the shot and collected the rebound below the goal line. At that moment he looked out front and saw Joe Devin cruising in to the top of the right circle. Cameron found a passing lane and Devin nailed a shot that beat the Nailers goalie for his tenth playoff tally.
Smelling blood in the water, the Stingrays kept up the pressure and pinned Wheeling in its own end. Sixty-one seconds after Devin’s goal, Caleb Herbert tipped a shot from the point by Joey Leach over Palazzese into the top right corner of the net for his eighth post-season goal and a 3-0 lead after two.
Wheeling interim head coach Jeff Christian reminded his troops that they had made eight third period comebacks in the regular season and had played well from behind in the first two rounds. The Nailers players took inspiration from the speech and began what would be a period-long onslaught against Vanecek and the South Carolina defense. The only problem was Vanecek was looking just as strong as he had in Friday night’s shutout victory.
The Nailers finally found the back of the net with 3:56 remaining when Derek Army dropped a pass to Clark Seymour who stepped into a hard shot from the high slot. Vanecek appeared to not pick up the puck until it was past him for Seymour’s fourth goal of the playoffs.
Wheeling continued to press and just missed pulling within one when Jordan Kwas missed a wide open net. Seconds later, Nailers captain Shane Bakker directed a shot attempt by Mathew Maione over to defenseman Paul Cianfrini who hit a one-time bomb over Vanecek’s catching glove from the left circle for his first goal of the playoffs to pull his team within one.
Still trailing 3-2, the Nailers put on a final push in hopes of finding the tying score. The hockey gods must have been impressed with the effort because with 1:12 left, a shot by Maione somehow found the skate of John McCarron and deflected into the net. The referees immediately signaled good goal and McCarron’s sixth of the playoffs had completed the comeback.
As the first overtime started, the Stingrays had almost two full minutes of carryover power play time. Palazzese and the Nailers killed off that South Carolina advantage as well as two more in the first half of overtime to keep the game going. Wheeling’s goalie, who had not seen action since early in the first round, stoned Jared Staal later in the frame to maintain the tie.
South Carolina got yet another chance to end the game on the power play early in the second extra period when McCarron was called for high-sticking (his second overtime penalty) but Palazzese bailed him out with four key saves.
A little more than a minute after killing off the penalty, Wheeling got a chance of its own when South Carolina’s Marcus Perrier went off for roughing. Thirty-four seconds into the advantage, McCarron slipped the puck to Burton who moved in, got Vanecek to commit and slid a backhander just under the goalie’s outstretched glove for his second goal of the playoffs and the game winner.
Vanecek, whose shoutout streak to start the series got to 114:04 (138:57 counting his relief stint in game seven against Adirondack) before Seymour’s goal, finished the game with 28 saves while suffering his first post-season loss. South Carolina was 0-for-6 on the power play in the contest while Wheeling went 1-for-3.
The teams will now travel to Wherling for games three, four and five at WesBanco Arena on Wednesday, Friday and Saturday nights. The game on Wednesday is set for 7:05 pm while Friday and Saturday’s puck drops are scheduled for 7:35pm.
Contact the author at Don.money@prohockeynews.com
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