After entering the playoffs as a six seed, the Wheeling Nailers U-12 (Pee-Wee) travel hockey team won three straight games last weekend, ending with a 3-2 overtime win and the championship of the Pennsylvania Amateur Hockey League (PAHL) Class A Major Gold Division. Captain Blaise Holt, assisted by Isaac Tiu and Mason Velas, scored about four minutes into the 5-on-5, five-minute, sudden-death overtime to defeat No. 1 seed Lawrence County Lightning for the playoff championship at the Belmont Complex in Kittanning, Pa.
“I didn’t believe it,” Head Coach Steve Velas said of the game-winning goal. “From my angle on the bench you could see the puck fluttering but I didn’t see the net move. Then I saw Blaise cheering.
“It took a couple of seconds to believe, holy crap, we just won this game.”
Win they did. The Nailers put together three impressive games to win the championship, defeating third-seed Penn State Icers 7-2 in the quarterfinals, with Holt and Maddox Ochap scoring two goals and one assist each. They edged the Armstrong Arrows 3-1 in the semifinals as Brayden Davis, Holt and Ochap scored goals. Defeating the top-seed Lightning was no small task as Lawrence County was 18-1-1 on the season; Wheeling tied the Lightning 1-1 early in the season, then lost to them 4-2 later in the 2022-23 campaign, finishing league play 10-5-3.
Holt scored two goals, including the game-winner, and Clayton Downer scored a goal for the Nailers. Velas has coached many of the players on the roster since they began playing and knew they could achieve great things as a team. “It all came down to the kids in the playoffs,” he said. “They came together at the right time. Everything just kind of starting jelling at the right time. I knew this was a special group. I’ve always known they had this in them.”
Often teams can identify a turning point leading to a championship, but very rarely two turning points in the same season. But that’s exactly what happened for this Nailers team. First, Velas found himself in a precarious roster situation. Heading into the season the team had a goaltender; however, the player couldn’t remain with the team, so it looked like the Nailers would enter the season without a goaltender. Step in Mason Hastings, a power forward by trade but a teammate ready to step in and take the goal.
“He stepped up and took right to it,” Velas said. Hastings excelled in the playoff run, recording three wins, stopping 57 of 62 shots for a .919 save percentage, and allowing a tiny 1.59 goals- against-average.
“It’s just amazing what he did. I can’t say enough about him. Without him…”
The other turning point came during the season when the Nailers traveled to South Bend, Indiana, to play a non-league tournament, which included games at Notre Dame’s facility. They finished in second place but gained so much momentum for the remainder of the season. “The South Bend tournament was huge for the team,” Velas said. “Kids started really trusting the system. It was a big turning point in our season. They started falling into roles on the team. The kids completely bought into that mentality, ‘this is my role.’”
The Nailers finished the PAHL regular season in sixth place in the 14-team division, and eight teams advanced to the playoffs. Even as a six-seed, Velas felt it was a “matter of time before the pieces started falling together, and this is what you get. I expected a deep playoff run with this team.”
Holt and Ochap led the team in scoring for the season. The roster included: forwards Holt (C), Tiu, Velas, Easton Kuchinski, Ochap (A), Downer, Davis, Zane Atkinson and Will Simonetti; defenders Reid Hamrick (A), Meredith Komorowski (A), Ellie Robinson, Andrew Conley and Connor Ball; and goaltender Hastings.
Velas’ assistant coaches for the team were Craig Conley and Justin Hamrick. In addition to the Nailers U-12 A Major Gold championship, several other Wheeling Nailers teams won titles in the playoffs. The Nailers U-18, U-12 B and U-10 teams won their divisions, as did the Wheeling Lightningbirds women’s hockey team.
Article compliments of Howard Karnell.
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