Atley Calvert comes up big with his first professional hat trick in a thrilling win for Wheeling.
Atley Calvert signed a two-year AHL contract with the Pittsburgh Penguins in June following two seasons with the WHL’s Moose Jaw Warriors, where he scored 87 goals in two seasons.
Since joining the ECHL and the Wheeling Nailers, he has continued to show his ability to put the puck in the net with skill and consistency.
Saturday night was another example. Calvert scored his first pro hat trick to lead Wheeling to a 6-4 victory against the Komets at Allen County War Memorial Coliseum in Fort Wayne.
It was a wild affair all night, with both teams coughing up two-goal leads. The Komets jumped on top with the first two goals, only to see Wheeling roar back for a 4-2 lead. Matt Koopman put the Nailers ahead for good with 1:34 left in the third period.
Late in the first period, Wheeling killed a four-minute high sticking penalty. That’s when Calvert went to work. After blocking a shot in his own end, Calvert took a beautiful feed from David Jankowski, then rifled a shot into the open left side of the goal to cut Fort Wayne’s lead to 2-1.
After Sam Houde tied the score 2-2 at 11:33 of the middle frame, Louie Roehl made a nice play off the right wall and spun a backhand pass to Jack Beck, who put a wrister from the right circle into the top-left corner of the cage with 4:18 remaining in the period to give the Nailers their first lead, 3-2.
Wheeling increased that margin to 4-2 with less than a minute to go in the second while on the power-play. Beck fed a pass to Calvert, who threaded the needle for his second goal of the game.
The Komets would battle back with 8:46 remaining in the third. Darren Brady tapped in a cross-ice pass from Alex Aleardi to pull within a goal.
Ethan Keppen tipped in a Brannon McManus point shot to tie the score less than three minutes later. After successfully killing a penalty, Wheeling took back the lead for good when Koopman redirected a shot from the right point from Matt Lindgren for his first goal of the season.
Calvert completed his hatty on an empty-netter with just 22 seconds remaining in the third, cinching the 6-4 victory for the Nailers.
Sergei Murashov was spectacular in net for Wheeling, stopping 48 of the 52 shots he faced, the most in a Nailers uniform. Connor Ungar stopped 18 of 23 shots to take the loss.
Wheeling is on a hot streak, having won five consecutive games and collecting points in eight straight. They’ve also won five games in a row over Fort Wayne for the first time ever. Wheeling moves to 9-3-1, while the Komets fall to 9-4-0.