Nailers News & Notes - Feb. 4, 2026
The calendar has flipped to February, and Punxsatawny Phil saw his shadow on Tuesday, which means there will be six more weeks of winter. There are still 11 more weeks of regular-season hockey left, and the Wheeling Nailers continue to hold onto first place in the North Division, which has been theirs since November 15th. Wheeling battled through a challenging four-game road trip to New England last week, and will look to get back to its winning ways with three home games this week against three different Central Division foes.THE OL' 29-ERThe Nailers will host their annual Pittsburgh Penguins Night on Saturday, and the special guest will bring a recognizable voice to the Friendly City. Two-time Stanley Cup Champion and current broadcast analyst Phil Bourque will be signing autographs prior to Saturday's 7:10 game against the Cincinnati Cyclones. He will then go to a familiar place, as he will join Wheeling broadcasters DJ Abisalih and Brock Woods for the call of the second period. In addition to getting an autograph from Bourque, fans can stick around after the game for a full team autograph session. The Nailers will also be wearing specialty jerseys, designed similarly to the ones Pittsburgh wore in the 2008 NHL Winter Classic in Buffalo. In a fun twist, if Wheeling can win all three games this week, Saturday will be win #29 with the Ol' 29-er in the building. Other games this week are Wednesday at 7:10 against the Fort Wayne Komets and a Frosty Friday against the Indy Fuel at 7:10.ONE WINNING MONTH AT A TIMEThe third game of last week's road trip brought the end to another month, and the Nailers improved their season mark yet again. Wheeling went 6-4-2 in 12 games during the month of January, and is now 14 games above .500 for the year. The Nailers have posted a winning record in each of the first four months of the 2025-26 season, as they went 2-1-0 in October, 12-2-1 in November, and 6-4-0 in December. This is just the third time in team history that Wheeling has earned a winning record in each of the first four months of a season. The other two occurrences were in 2003-04 and 2005-06. Both of those clubs finished one month shy of running the table with seven months worth of winning records. The 2005-06 squad saw its run end with a 5-5-1 record in February, while the 2003-04 club saw the finish line in sight, but dropped game 72 to go 1-1-0 in April.IT'S GOOD TO BE HOMEAfter four road games last week, the Nailers will spend almost the entire month of February in the Ohio Valley. Wheeling will play nine of its next 11 games at WesBanco Arena, with the only two road contests taking place at Indy on February 11th and at Fort Wayne on February 28th. Home ice has treated the Nailers especially well this season, as they have gone 15-3-1 when taking the ice in front of the local crowd. Wheeling still owns a winning record on the road as well at 11-9-2. However, the last two months have seen a drastic difference in the team's performance, depending on whether the games are at home or on enemy ice. Since the start of December, the Nailers are 9-2-0 in 11 home games. During that same period of time, Wheeling has gone 3-7-2 in 12 road battles. The biggest statistical gap during that stretch for the Nailers comes in the form of goals scored. Wheeling is averaging 3.45 at home to just 2.00 on the road. The goals against average is significantly closer, with 2.08 at home and 2.46 on the road.NAILERS IN THE OLYMPICSThe 2026 Winter Olympics are set to begin later this week in Italy, and there will be plenty of eyes focused on ice hockey to see if another epic match between the United States and Canada could decide who takes home the gold. For Nailers fans, this year's Olympics will be extra exciting, as there are four former Nailers players who will take the ice in hopes of earning a medal. Germany's Freddie Tiffels (2017-18) and Latvia's Renars Krastenbergs (2018-20) will both be appearing in their second Olympic Games, after playing in Beijing in 2022. Italy is playing men's hockey in the Olympics for the first time since hosting the Games in 2006, and Nick Saracino (2018-20) will be on the roster for the host squad. It's been even longer since France's last appearance in 2002 in Salt Lake City, but Justin Addamo (2022-24) is looking to make this year a memorable one with his teammates. There are two more fun connections on the women's side. 2010-11 Nailers Assistant Coach John Wroblewski is the head coach for Team USA, while linesperson Kirsten Welsh, who made her ECHL debut at WesBanco Arena in 2022, will be officiating in the tournament.A QUICK BREAK FROM RECENT PROGRAMMINGWe interrupt this run in which Wheeling played 22 of 23 games against North Division opponents to bring you three games against Central Division squads this week at WesBanco Arena. Wheeling will start the week on Wednesday by playing the Fort Wayne Komets for the first time in 325 days. The other team from the Hoosier State comes to town on Friday, as the Nailers will battle the Indy Fuel. Finally, Saturday night will be a showdown with the Cincinnati Cyclones. Let's dive into these match-ups.The Nailers and Komets will face-off five times this season, and four of the five games will take place over a 26-day span, including all three clashes at WesBanco Arena. Wheeling won the season series against Fort Wayne last year for the first time since 2014-15 by taking three of the five tilts. The Komets saw their five-game winning streak end on Sunday against Tahoe, but that run has them sitting comfortably in second place in the Central Division at 23-11-6, which is good for 52 points. Six players are within four points of each other for the team's scoring lead, which is currently held by Kirill Tyutyayev and his 33 points. Austin Magera is the leading goal scorer with 17, while Jalen Smereck has contributed 30 points from the blueline. Nathaniel Day (12-6-4) and Samuel Jonsson (9-5-2) have played all but two of the games in net.Wheeling and Indy played the first game of its season series on Thanksgiving Eve, when the Nailers skated away with a 5-2 triumph at WesBanco Arena. At that point, the Fuel were hovering around the .500 mark. However, Indy has played significantly better lately, earning points in 14 of its last 17 games with an 11-3-3 record. That has helped lift the Fuel into a tie for third place in the Central Division with Bloomington, and the two teams have a nine-point cushion over Kalamazoo and Cincinnati. Last week, Indy took a pair of 3-2 decisions in Iowa. Sahil Panwar is the only Fuel player with double digits in goals (11), while Matt Petgrave leads the way with 28 points. Mitchell Weeks has played seven of the last eight games in goal, and has allowed two goals or less in six of the seven, going 4-1-2.While the Fuel have shot up the standings, Cincinnati has experienced a more bumpy path lately, as the Cyclones are 4-9-0 in 2026 and 18-18-3 overall. One of the glaring struggles recently for Cincinnati has been goals against, as the Cyclones have allowed five goals or more in seven of their last eight losses. Last weekend, Cincinnati went 1-2-0, as it sandwiched a 2-1 win over Bloomington between a 6-0 loss to Fort Wayne and a 6-3 setback to Toledo. The Nailers are 2-0-1 against the Cyclones this season, and the last two games were vastly different, as Wheeling won 8-3, before Cincinnati took a 2-1 overtime decision the following day. Ben King's 39 points lead the Cyclones, while Ken Appleby started all three games in goal last weekend.Buy Tickets for Upcoming GamesWed. Feb. 4Fri. Feb. 6 - Frosty FridaySat. Feb. 7 - Pittsburgh Penguins Night, Starring Phil BourqueSat. Feb. 14 - Country Night, Featuring Loop Rawlins Read the full article
