Thomas Milic - Image courtesy of the @ECHL X account.Unfortunately, this is not a case of deja vu. For the second consecutive night, the Wheeling Nailers failed to light the lamp while their opponent, the Norfolk Admirals, found the back of the net four times for their second 4-0 victory in 24 hours.
As the series shifts back to Wheeling, WV for Games 3 nd 4, the Nailers need to find some offense as Thomas Milic has made 52 saves in six periods. Meanwhile, Wheeling’s Rookie of the Year, Sergei Murashov, is struggling with eight goals against on 49 shots for a .875 SV% in his first taste of Kelly Cup action.
Ultimately, Wheeling fell behind even earlier on Thursday night, giving up a goal to Darick Louis-Jean just 35 seconds into the contest. The hometown Admirals padded their lead with another goal at 14:53 and held a 2-0 lead despite being outshot 11-8.
Things continued to unravel in the second period, when Denis Smirnov scored at 7:33 of the second period, the game’s only power-play goal. Meanwhile, Murashov was tasked with saving a Brady Fluerent penalty shot at 15:17 of the middle frame to keep things at just 3-0.
However, the Admirals beat the young goaltender for the fourth time at 14:33 of the third when Sean Montgomery tallied his first of the series to give the home team a convincing 4-0 win, despite being outshot on Thursday, 33-28.
One of the reasons why the Nailers find themselves down 2-0 in the series and outscored 8-0 is because, in just two games, they have accumulated 50 minutes in penalties, with the Admirals converting on one of six power-play opportunities. Moreover, Norfolk isn’t playing that aggressively with just 20 minutes through six periods of play.
This best-of-seven series resumes next Wednesday, April 23, at the WesBanco Arena.