The Wheeling team bus had mechanical problems Monday morning and delayed the Nailers’ arrival at Cambria County War Memorial Arena.
But once the Nailers showed up, they outworked and outpointed the Johnstown Chiefs 2-1 in front of 2,534 fans attending the first afternoon weekday home game in the team’s 19-year history.
“They were hungry,” Chiefs coach Frank Anzalone said of Wheeling. “They looked like a team that got embarrassed at home a few weeks ago. They deserved to win.”
The opposite could be said of the Chiefs, who often appeared uninspired and – other than a fight by Adam Henrich and a few random checks – displayed little grit.
On Dec. 30, Johnstown scored six power-play goals in the third period of a 7-1 victory at Wheeling. That penalty-filled game apparently left a lasting impression on the Nailers, who outshot the Chiefs 26-14, including a 9-2 margin in the final period.
With 10 shots on goal, Wheeling’s Joe Jensen had only four fewer than the entire Chiefs team.
“We definitely didn’t have our ‘A’ game,” said Chiefs goaltender Morgan Cey, a bright spot with 24 saves. “We did not play well as a team and there’s no excuse for it.”
Some carryover from the Dec. 30 game was evident when Johnstown’s Henrich and the Nailers’ Curtiss Patrick fought 3:18 into the first. Henrich landed a solid punch to Patrick’s face to end the scrum.
The Nailers scored first on Joe Guenther’s unassisted power-play goal at 11:25. Guenther capitalized after the Chiefs failed to work the puck around the back boards.
“It was a bad clear,” Anzalone said. “The penalty was killed off. Eight seconds left. A veteran defenseman (Doug Andress) didn’t get it around the net. Guenther’s been scoring those goals like that his whole life.
“But that’s not the story of the game. Give Wheeling credit. They came in here and outworked us. They got the two points. It’s a valuable, valuable two points.”
The Chiefs (15-16-2-2) enter the all-star break below .500 and tied for fifth with Wheeling (16-18-1-1) at 34 points.
“The first goal Dougie Andress tried to wrap the puck around the boards and it hit our net,” Cey said. “I wasn’t sure where the puck was and before I knew it, they had wrapped it in the net.”
Johnstown defenseman Andrew Martens tied the score with the man advantage at 17:10. Radek Smolenak’s shot from the point bounced to Eric Przepiorka, then to Zbynek Hrdel before landing on Martens’ stick in the low slot.
“We’ve been working on our power play because we’ve had some struggles,” Martens said. “We worked it around the point back out to P.J. Atherton. P.J. got it to Smolenak for the one-timer. The puck was just bobbling around and I was fortunate to get a stick on it and find a hole.”
Wheeling’s Richard Colwill used another move from behind the net to score after Cey made two pad saves during a Nailers flurry with 4:12 left in the game.
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