Photo by Joe Lovell The Wheeling Nailers’ Kyle Jackson (37) and David Drake (5) celebrate during the Nailers’ home game against the Kansas City Mavericks on Jan. 24, 2025.

WHEELING — The Wheeling Nailers have reached the 50-game mark of their 72-game ECHL regular season. The team currently sits in second place in the North Division with 64 points (31-17-2), which also has them tied for fourth in the Eastern Conference.

Head coach Derek Army likes where his team stands at the present, but knows there is no room for complacency.

“The crazy part, which is nothing new, is that we’ve essentially had three or four different teams in our first 50 games,” Army explained. “The team we had personnel-wise during our (16-game) winning streak is a completely different team now. You just try and work through it.”

Wheeling is in the middle of a six-game homestand, going 1-2 last weekend with two games against Adirondack (17-30-3-1 38) and one against Maine (20-28-3-0 43), starting tonight at WesBanco Arena. The puck drops at 7:10.

“We’ve had the luxury of our power play and penalty kill have been really good for us this season and I think that’s why we’ve been so good,” Army added. “Our goaltending has also been really good.”

Wheeling has scored 36 goals on 156 chances (23.1 percent) and has killed 83.7 percent (118-141) of its penalty kills.

The Nailers goaltenders have been nothing short of superb as Sergei Murashov (16-6-1, 2.31ga, .926 save percentage) has shined between the pipes. Reigning ECHL Goaltender of the Year Taylor Gauthier (10-7, 2.62, .911) and Jaxon Castor (4-4-1, 3.45, .878) hav filled in quite well when called upon.

“Up front we’ve shown flashes. That first team we had to start the season was dynamite at scoring goals,” he noted. “That was because of the caliber of players we had. Now you’ve got to simplify things. Down the stretch, statistically, we’ve been snake bit.”

Matty De St. Phalle leads the team in scoring with 44 points (17 goals, 27 assists), while Kyle Jackson (22-21 43) is right behind. Defenseman Chris Ortiz has logged 39 points (5-34).

Injuries, Callups

“Fortunately for me, I’ve been around the league and you know those things are going to happen,” Army admitted. “You’ve got to build up enough of a leeway to help you for when it does happen, and we did that early on.

Last season after we went on that 12-game winning streak, we got awful thin because of callups, injuries or whatever. You’ve just got to be prepared for when it happens. This season I think it happened a little earlier than expected.”

By The Month

Wheeling has only managed to go 3-7-0 this month, with the one game left tonight, and are 1-5-0 in its last six contests. This month will actually be the first month the Nailers have had a losing record, after going 2-2-0 in October, 10-1-1 in November, 10-2-0 in December, and 6-5-1 in January.

Since our winning streak earlier this season, we are 13-12-1, but, overall, we’ve been able to keep our heads above water,” Army said.

Home Sweet Home

Down The Stretch

Of the remaining regular-season games, 13 are inside the friendly confines of WesBanco Arena where the Nailers are 16-6-1 compared to 15-11-1 on the road.

“At this stage of the season, every game is important, but one game isn’t going to win us the Kelly Cup. You’ve got to keep on playing. Analytically, we deserved a better fate on Sunday, and we could’ve gone 2-1 on the weekend. It’s a different ballgame.

We did a lot last weekend, but things just didn’t go our way. However, we’ve had some games where the bounces have gone our way.”