The Wheeling Nailers, ECHL affiliate of the Pittsburgh Penguins, now find themselves facing elimination ahead of Game 4 on Saturday.
Things are not going so well for the Wheeling Nailers so far in the ECHL Eastern Conference Final.
On Wednesday, the Nailers dropped Game 3 to the Florida Everblades, 5-2, putting them in a 3-0 series hole. It was the first road win for a team in the series.
Nailers' goaltender Taylor Gauthier stopped 28 of 33 shots by the Everblades, while Everblades' goaltender Cam Johnson allowed just two goals on 29 shots. Despite taking three losses in the series so far - and despite the five-goal effort from Florida on Wednesday, Gauthier still has a .908 save percentage in the series.
Florida set the tone right from the jump, as forward Craig Needham hastily threw a puck toward the net from the left wall that somehow found its way through Gauthier just 16 seconds into the game. The Nailers did even things up with around seven and a half to go in the opening frame with a Tiernan Shoudy one-time blast from the right circle. But the Everblades retook the lead with a minute and a half to go with a goal from forward Anthony Romano to make it 2-1.
Wheeling did manage to tie the game once again nearing the midway point of the second period with a nice goal from Brayden Edwards, but Florida responded just two minutes later with a Carson Gicewicz goal from the net-front to regain the lead for good.
Hudson Elynuik and Cole Moberg added goals for the Everblades on a dominant final frame, with the latter being a seeing-eye shot from the point.
The series will continue at WesBanco Arena in Wheeling for Game 4 on Friday night. Should Game 5 be necessary, that would be in Wheeling on Saturday followed by Games 6 and 7 in Estero, Florida, at Hertz Arena.
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