Joe Lovell Members of the OFF BIG WIN – Wheeling Nailers celebrate with their fans as they defeated the Maine Mariners to reach the Kelly Cup Eastern Conference Finals for the first time in a decade.

WHEELING — Nailers fever is spreading quickly throughout the Ohio Valley, and it’s a condition local hockey fans hope sticks around a while longer.

The Wheeling Nailers have reached the ECHL Kelly Cup Eastern Conference Finals, beginning a best-of-seven series Friday night against the Florida Everblades in Estero, Florida. While Nailers fans will have to wait to see their team in person this round, they can still watch the game locally in a few ways.

The games will be broadcast on FloHockey.tv, a subscription-based streaming network that broadcasts minor league hockey games. Yet there will be at least two locations to watch the games in the Friendly City. River City Ale Works and The Alpha Tavern will hold watch parties for Wheeling’s away games.

The current playoff push, which has included victories over the Reading Royals in five games and the Maine Mariners in seven games, has the Nailers in the conference championship series for the first time in a decade.

However, following Monday night’s 4-3 triumph over Maine in only the second Game 7 inside WesBanco Arena, first-year Wheeling head coach Ryan Papaioannou wasn’t too excited.

“It feels good. It’s where we should be. We were the (North) division winner,” he said. “We’ll probably be one of four division winners in the (conference) finals. It’s a special night, but for me, it was expected.”

This is the first time the Nailers have advanced to the conference final round since 2016, and it is the sixth time the club has advanced to the league semifinals. The Everblades are making their fifth consecutive trip to the conference final round and 11th conference final appearance in team history.

This will be the second playoff series between Wheeling and Florida. The Nailers defeated the Everblades, 4-2, in the 2016 Eastern Conference Quarterfinal Series.

For the first time in the postseason, the Nailers will not have home-ice advantage. As has been the case in the first two rounds, the series will be played in a 2-3-2 format.

The Everblades finished first in the Eastern Conference during the regular season with a 49-13-10 record, good for 108 points. Wheeling went 46-20-6, good for 98 points and a second-place finish in the conference.

Therefore, Florida will host Games 1 and 2 at Hertz Arena on Friday at 7:30 p.m. and Saturday at 7 p.m.

The series then will shift to WesBanco Arena, where the Nailers will host Games 3, 4 and 5, if necessary. Those contests will be played Wednesday, May 27, Friday, May 29, and Saturday, May 30. The puck will drop for those games at 7:10 p.m.

If necessary, Games 6 and 7 will return to Florida on Monday, June 1, and Wednesday, June 3, with both opening faceoffs slated for 7:30 p.m.

Papaioannou was correct when he said the Nailers could be one of four division champions in the conference finals. In the Western Conference, No. 1 Kansas City hosts No. 2 Fort Wayne. It’s the first time since 2006 that all four division champions comprised the Final Four.

When asked earlier in the week what he knew about Florida, Papaioannou quickly replied, “Not much. I think they come into the series with 16 (playoff) series wins. So, they are kind of a juggernaut, but there’s no reason we can’t go down there and beat them.”

Wheeling will try to keep the momentum generated from Monday night’s fifth Game 7 victory in team history, as it rallied from a 3-2 series deficit to defeat Maine in the North Division Finals. The home team won all seven games in Round 2, as Wheeling improved to 6-0 at WesBanco Arena in the 2026 Kelly Cup Playoffs.

Ryan McAllister was the leading scorer in the series with nine points, and he also is the leading scorer in the entire postseason for the Nailers with 11 points.

Brayden Edwards and Zach Urdahl both scored three goals against the Mariners, with Urdahl’s empty-netter in Game 7 serving as the series winner.

Taylor Gauthier has earned all eight playoff wins for Wheeling this spring, putting him one victory shy of matching Brian Foster for the most playoff wins by a goaltender in one season and in a career in team history.

The Nailers won their opening-round series in five games over the Reading Royals and are 8-4 thus far in the postseason.

The Everblades have needed only nine games to earn their eight wins and advance to the conference final round. Florida swept the Savannah Ghost Pirates in Round 1, then dispatched the South Carolina Stingrays in five games during the South Division Final Series.

Anthony Romano had a dominant series for the Everblades against the Stingrays, scoring seven goals in the first three matches, including a hat trick in Game 2.

Romano and Carson Gicewicz each have posted 10 points in the postseason to lead Florida in scoring.

Three-time Kelly Cup champion Cam Johnson is having another stellar spring in goal, allowing only 12 goals in nine starts.

Unlike the first two rounds of the playoffs, the Nailers and Everblades are complete strangers. The last time the two clubs faced off was during the 2020-21 season in a three-game series in Estero. Florida hasn’t visited Nail City since the opening round of the 2016 Kelly Cup Playoffs.

Tanner Andrew, Alexander Kuqali and Tristan Thompson are the only three Wheeling players to have ever played against the Everblades, while Aidan Sutter played six games for Florida during the 2023-24 season.

Some Everblades players are more familiar with the Nailers, as Sean Allen, Zach Berzolla, Gianfranco Cassaro, Oliver Cooper, Connor Doherty, Patrick Kyte, Logan Lambdin, Kyle McClellan, Jordan Sambrook and Riese Zmolek all have faced Wheeling at some point in their careers.

Playoff tickets are available now by calling (304) 234-GOAL or visiting Wheeling Nailers.

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