ELMIRA, NY – The Elmira Jackals used a solid defenseive effort to defeat the Wheeling Nailers 3-1 at First Arena Friday night. The win was the first for Robbie Nichols, who made his head coaching debut with the Jackals.
The Nailers Kelly Miller continued his solid play, scoring the game’s first goal. Andrew Orpik won his battle on the wall, and fed the puck to Miller who broke into the slot and fired a wrist shot past Elmira goaltender Marco Cousineau. The Jackals responded at 10:39 of the opening period. After a nice save by Peter Delmas off the pad, the Jackals leading scoring Justin Donati picked up the rebound and flipped it high over Delmas who was down on the ice to tie the game at one after the first period.
Neither team gave an inch for a majority of the second period. However, Elmira’s Josh Brittain flipped a shot from the circle that clipped by Delmas with just 37 seconds remaining in the period, to give the Jackals a 2-1 lead after two periods.
The Nailers continued to battle in the third but was stymied by stingy Elmira defensive effort. The Nailers pulled the goaltender to allow for the extra attacker, but the Jackals added an empty net goal by Michael Dubuc with ten seconds remaining to seal the 3-1 victory. Elmira outshot Wheeling 27-24 in the game.
Prior to Friday’s game, the Nailers announced that forwards Ryan Schnell, Tyler Murovich , and David Marshall had been returned to Wheeling by the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins of the American Hockey League. All three players played in Friday’s loss to Elmira.
The Nailers return home this Sunday, February 27 against the Greenville Road Warriors. Game time is slated for 6:05 p.m.
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