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Wheeling Nailers schedule for next season announced

WHEELING — The Wheeling Nailers, proud ECHL affiliate of the Pittsburgh Penguins, have announced their schedule for the 2023-24 season – the 32nd season of professional hockey in Wheeling.

The 2023-24 schedule is extremely family friendly, as 35 of the 36 home games will be played on weekends or holidays, with the lone outlier being the annual Education Day game. After starting the season with three straight road contests, Wheeling will play its home opener in November for the third time in six years, as Saturday, November 4th will be the first game in Nail City. While Central Division rivals account for over half of the games (47 of 72), there is significantly more variety on the slate, as the Nailers will face 12 teams. The most frequent opponents are Indy (11) and Cincinnati (10), while WesBanco Arena will open its doors for home series against Idaho, Norfolk, Orlando, and Tulsa. Wheeling will also travel to Orlando for a road series, in addition to the first visit to Utah in team history. Home game times will remain the same, as Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday games will begin at 7:10, Sunday games will begin at 4:10, New Year’s Eve will begin at 6:10, and Education Day will begin at 10:45 a.m.

Fans won’t have to travel far to catch the season opener, as the Nailers will start off by visiting their closest geographical opponent, the Cincinnati Cyclones, on Saturday, October 21. The second week of the campaign will take Wheeling to Kalamazoo and Fort Wayne, and the October 27 clash will be the team’s lone game at Wings Event Center in the entire season.

While the teams currently play in opposite conferences, the Nailers and Reading Royals have enjoyed a memorable rivalry of over 200 games, and that is how the home docket will begin, as Wheeling will host Reading on Saturday, November 4 and Sunday, October 5. That is part of a season-long five-game homestand, which will continue the following weekend, as the Brabham Cup Champion Idaho Steelheads will come to Nail City for the first time since 2017 for tilts on November 10, 11 and 12.

Other highlights in November include a morning game in Toledo on the 15, the traditional Thanksgiving Eve game, which is also against the Walleye on the 22, and the lone visit of the season by the Iowa Heartlanders to close out Thanksgiving Weekend on the 25 and 26.

December will also be packed full of home matches, as Wheeling will take the ice eight times in front of the best fans in all of hockey. That is tied with November and February for the most in a month in 2023-24. Four of the five weekends that month will feature multiple home games, starting with divisional match-ups against Toledo and Kalamazoo on the 1st and 3rd. The Nailers will then get to dip their toes into Mountain Division waters again, as the Tulsa Oilers will play in Downtown Wheeling for the fourth and fifth times ever on the 9 and 10. Indy and Cincinnati will be the last two home opponents before the holidays on the 15 and 16, while 2023 will conclude with a two-game series against the Norfolk Admirals on December 30 and 31. This will be the third New Year’s Eve clash with the Admirals in the last five years.

Sunshine will greet the Nailers as the calendar flips to 2024, as the squad will head to Orlando for a three-game series against the Solar Bears on January 5, 6 and 7. The second week of January will be a significant one, as it is the only time Wheeling will be at home all month. Indy will be in for the 12 and 13, before Kalamazoo wraps up the weekend on the 14. The rest of January will feature series in Iowa and Reading, as well as a solo trip to Cincinnati.

February starts in similar fashion to the way January did, but this time, it will be in the Friendly City, as the Nailers and Solar Bears have three more tilts on tap for February 2, 3 and 4. Wheeling will then make a quick stop in Reading to try to teach the Royals a thing or two in a morning game, before the two clubs meet again at WesBanco Arena on February 9 and 10. After that, it’s off to a brand new place, as the Nailers will lace up their skates in a 30th state, when they battle the Utah Grizzlies in West Valley City on February 16, 17 and 19. A pair of familiar faces will welcome Wheeling back to the Eastern Time Zone, as one game against the Komets and two with the Wings closes out the home portion of February.

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