WHEELING – For the first time in its 34-year ECHL existence, Wheeling will meet Maine in the playoffs.

The Nailers (46-20-6) earned home ice in the Kelly Cup North Division championship by five points over the Mariners (42-21-9) during the regular season when they topped the North Division with 98 points. Maine finished as the No. 2 seed.

Wheeling won its best-of-7 first-round series with fourth-seeded Reading in five games, while it took Maine seven to dispose of No. 3 Adirondack.

Game 1 in the best-of-7 North Division championship series is set for Friday night inside WesBanco Arena when the puck drops at 7:10. Game 2 is also in downtown Wheeling on Saturday with a similar puck drop. The series will then shift to Portland, Maine, where Games 3 (May 11), 4 (May 12) and, if needed, Game 5 (May 13) will be played inside Cross Insurance Arena, all with 7 p.m. starts. Should the series return to the Friendly City, Game 6 would be Saturday, May 16 and, if necessary, Game 7 would be Monday, May 18, both with 7:10 starts.

“It didn’t matter who we played. We’re just excited to get started,” first-year Wheeling head coach Ryan Papaioannou said following a mid-week practice session. “Come Friday night, Maine will be excited and ready to play, but it has to help us that they went seven games and then had to travel here.

“We only have one day to prepare for them, so that in itself is a challenge for us,” Papaioannou noted. “They have limited time to rest, but we have limited time to prepare.”

Maine and Wheeling met five times during the regular season, with the Nailers prevailing three times – twice at home and once on the road. They held a sizable 9-2 advantage in goals scored at WesBanco Arena, while two of the three games in Portland went into overtime. Wheeling’s Mike Posma scored a team-best four goals in the season series as the Nailers utilized four different goalies.

Wheeling collected its third playoff series victory in the last five years when it eliminated Reading. It was the Nailers’ 17th all-time. In doing so, Wheeling outscored Reading 14-4. The four goals allowed tied an ECHL record for fewest in a five-game series. Taylor Gauthier recorded three shutouts, stopped 148 of 152 shots and posted a microscopic 0.71 goals-against.

“I’ve seen it before but it’s nice to have a goaltender that is playing like Gaut is. It makes everyone feel that they can make a mistake and get away with it because of the way he is playing, not that you want to play that way, but it gives our guys confidence.”

The “scoring-by-committee” offense was led by team captain Matthew Quercia with six points. Five different players each found the net twice. Newcomer Nolan Renwick capped the third longest game in team history with his double overtime game- and series-clinching Game 5.

“If we’re going to have any type of length in this playoff run, we need to keep it up,” he said of more than a few guys scoring. “We can’t rely on just one or two guys to do all the scoring because we’re in a limited time and limited space. We need contributions from everybody.”

Papaioannou said having home-ice advantage is huge and the Nailers will need the crowd to come out this weekend,

“We always have our 2,500 die-hard fans that are here every game, but we need more people. This should be a full building on Friday and Saturday.”

Wheeling is seeking to make the third round of the playoffs for the seventh time in team history, but the first since 2016.