Nailers Improbable Run

When you think about where the Wheeling Nailers are at this point in the season, it’s fairly remarkable.

They’re three wins away from playing in the team’s first Kelly Cup championship series, and have never played this late into the calendar in history. They’ve also tied a franchise record with nine playoff wins.

But here they are led by a third head coach this season. That’s right THIRD. When former Team USA Captain (’92) Clark Donatelli (left), the winningest coach in franchise history (147-119-10-22), was promoted to the AA affiliate Wilkes-Barre Scranton Penguins just before Christmas, Assistant Coach David Gove (right) took over and led the Nailers to the post-season. But as the playoffs began, Gove left the team for what management called a personal leave of absence after guiding the team to a first-round series victory over the Florida Everblades.

Enter Jeff Christian, who came on board as an assistant coach in early January, and is now the head coach. But the success continued.

All Christian did was guide the Nailers to a series win over the Reading Royals, which included the first home Game 7 in franchise history, a thrilling 4-3 overtime victory with Riley Brace netting the game-winning goal on May 11, 2016.

The Nailers are currently early in the Eastern Conference Finals, tied at 1, with the South Carolina Stingrays. The series shifts to WesBanco Arena for games three, four and five on Wednesday, Friday and Saturday.

With the success of the Pittsburgh Penguins, who currently have a former Nailer Tom Kuhnhackl in the lineup, it’s easy to root for the entire organization. The Pens have raised the Stanley Cup three times, most recently in 2009, but the Nailers have never captured the Kelly Cup. So I urge you to get out to WesBanco Arena this week and root on the area’s only professional sports team. You may just witness a piece of hockey history from this hard-working squad.

*Photos courtesy of: The Wheeling Nailers and Ryan Breiding*