Originally published on Jul. 6, 2021
By Zane Miller
This is one of those wild games that I don’t feel like
gets discussed enough, and I didn’t want it to be lost to time, so I figured
that I should write an article covering the events of this game and what made
it so special.
On Sunday, May 29th, 2016, the Wheeling Nailers faced
off against the Allen Americans in the second game of the 2016 Kelly Cup
Finals. As the Americans had earned home ice advantage for the first two games
of the series, the game was held at the Allen Event Center in Allen, Texas.
The Wheeling Nailers got to the playoffs with a 37-35
record during the 2015-16 ECHL season, despite needing to replace their head
coach midway through the season, with David Gove taking over for Clark
Donatelli who was promoted to head coach of the AHL’s Wilkes-Barre/Scranton
Penguins.
Meanwhile, the Allen Americans took a 41-31 regular
season record to qualify for the 2016 playoffs, being coached by Steve
Martinson, who had been the team’s only head coach since joining the ECHL in
2014, and remains as HC of the Americans as of this writing.
The Nailers picked up a first-round victory over the Florida
Everblades, winning the series four games to two, then going on to defeat the
Reading Royals in the second round, in another close series four games to
three. The conference finals saw the Nailers take on the South Carolina
Stingrays, who were looking to reach the Finals for the second straight season,
as well as avenge their loss in their previous matchup as they were denied in
2015 by the Americans, who won the championship in seven games. However, Wheeling
took the conference final in seven games, setting up their matchup against
Allen.
The Americans also started off their playoff run with
a tight series, taking down the Idaho Steelheads four games to three in the
first round. The team then went on to defeat the Missouri (now Kansas City)
Mavericks, who had won the Brabham Cup for the best regular season record
during the 2015-16 season at 52-20, in six games to advance to the conference
finals as well. Allen took on the Fort Wayne Komets, who were looking to make
their first Kelly Cup Finals appearance, but was not to be as the Americans
handily took the series four games to one. With that, Allen looked to claim
back-to-back championships in their series against Wheeling.
Game one of the finals saw the Americans grab the
momentum early with a 5-3 win at home to score a 1-0 series lead. This brings
us to the main focus of this story, with game two bringing one of the wildest afternoons
in ECHL history.
The game got started at 4:05 p.m., with Brian Foster
at goaltender for Wheeling and Jake Hildebrand starting in net for Allen. Foster
had appeared in 22 games for the Nailers during the regular season, taking a
10-11 record with a .908 save percentage, and also had some NHL experience as
well, as he appeared in one game with the Florida Panthers in the 2011-12 season.
Hildebrand, on the other hand, had much less playing time during the regular
season with just six appearances. However, he put up splendid numbers in his
limited schedule, picking up a 5-1 record with a .925 save percentage.
Wheeling set the tone for the game early, scoring at
the 6:34 mark of the first period as forward Derek Army hit the back of the net
on the power play to give the Nailers a 1-0 lead. At 14:30, defenseman Clark
Seymour added another goal for Wheeling, making it a 2-0 game. The scoring
parade continued at 17:52, with forward Cody Wydo earning another power play
tally, making it a 3-0 lead going into the second.
Following the rough first period for Allen, Hildebrand
was replaced by goaltender Joel Rumpel, who had gotten far more experience during
the regular season with 39 games played with a 21-15 record and .907 save
percentage. However, this change did little to shift the momentum, as Wheeling
picked up right where they left off courtesy of forward Anton Zlobin potting
the team’s third power play goal of the game at the 6:03 mark. Continuing to
take advantage of all the momentum being in their favor, forward Jarrett Burton
made it 5-0 near the game’s midway point at 9:43. While the Americans would end
the shutout bid at 15:16 with forward Chad Costello scoring Allen’s first goal,
the four-goal deficit would be short-lived with Nailers defenseman Mathew
Maione scoring at 16:27 for a 6-1 lead. However, the next goal would be where
the game began to get really weird.
At the 18:23 mark of the second period, Wheeling
forward Jordan Kwas was given a four-minute penalty for high sticking, prompting
a fight between Kwas and Allen defenseman Rick Pinkston. While the fighting
penalties offset each other, Pinkston was also assessed a two-minute penalty
for roughing, cutting the original four-minute long power play for the
Americans down to two minutes. Looking to take advantage of their power play
chance and desperate to score quickly, the team opted to pull the goaltender
for an extra attacker, which is almost never seen in the first two periods of a
hockey game with the exception of delayed penalty calls.
With Allen clearly taking an aggressive approach to
getting themselves back in the game, it didn’t take long for Wheeling to take
advantage of the empty net, as forward John McCarron scored the shorthanded
tally to make it a 7-1 lead as the teams headed into the locker rooms with 20
minutes remaining.
As the teams headed out for the third period, it
originally seemed to be business as usual, although the Americans netted their
second goal of the game off the stick of forward Spencer Asuchak at the 2:21
mark. Just under two minutes later, the Americans struck again as defenseman
Aaron Gens made it 7-3 at the 4:20 mark. However, Wheeling still maintained a
four-goal lead, which they enjoyed for about three more minutes before a power
play goal courtesy of forward Gary Steffes at 7:27. 84 seconds later, Americans
forward Casey Pierro-Zabotel scored at the 8:51 mark to make it a 7-5 lead for
the Nailers. Just past the midway point of the third, Steffes found the back of
the net for a second time, cutting the Nailers advantage in half at 10:03, as
the team seemed poised to tie the game up with three goals scored in roughly
two and a half minutes.
As you can imagine, Wheeling was desperate to stop the
bleeding of five unanswered goals, prompting them to put goaltender Franky
Palazzese in net for the remainder of the game. Palazzese had also put together
a solid season with the Nailers during the regular season, claiming a 20-18
record with a .906 save percentage. While the momentum had shifted completely
in favor of the Americans in the third period, the chances began to dry up for
them in the second half. Still behind by one goal with 2:24 left, the Americans
pulled the goaltender yet again. Just as it happened the first time in the game,
the strategy did not work out for Allen as the Nailers held on to take the 7-6
victory and even the series up at 1-1. Foster took the win for Wheeling with 23
saves on 29 shots, while Rumpel was hit with the loss for the Americans as he
made 12 saves on 15 chances.
While the Nailers won game two, it was Allen who would
get the last laugh as they went on to take back-to-back championships,
defeating Wheeling four games to two. Still, this is the only game I can think
of where the winning goal was scored on a shorthanded empty net goal in the
second period.
Link to stats database: https://lscluster.hockeytech.com/game_reports/official-game-report.php?client_code=echl&game_id=14791
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