WHEELING – The Wheeling Nailers played a near-perfect game Friday night in taking a 1-0 lead in their best-of-7 ECHL North Division semifinal series.

Zach Urdahl scored two times in the second period and goaltender Taylor Gathieu stopped all 20 shots he faced as Wheeling blanked Reading 4-0 before 2,305 fans inside WesBanco Arena.

Game 2 is set for tonight at 7:10 back inside WesBanco Arena.

“We knew the style that Reading would play and we were up for the challenge. I think we met them physically,” Wheeling first-year head coach Ryan Papaioannou said. “Special teams were good. Goaltending was good.”

The Royals tried to get under the Nailers’ skin in the first period, but the Nailers knew what was coming and played it cool.

“We talked all week about how they were going to come at us and we had to match. I thought our guys played very disciplined,” Papaioannou said.

After a scoreless first 20 minutes, Urdahl found the net twice in a span of 54 seconds. He made it 1-0 on the power-play off assists by Emil Pieniniemi and Gauthier.

“I was skating down the flank and just trying to get the puck on the net,” Urdahl said of his first net-finder. “It went in.”

With newcomer Nolan Renwick in the penalty box for goaltender interference, Urdahl stole the puck at the center red line, skated down the slot and rifled the puck past Yaniv Perets for a short-handed goal to make it 2-0.

“I had some speed coming in and I kind of pushed the goalie back in his net and that gave me enough net to shoot it in,” Urdahl noted.

The last time he had a two-goal game was also against Reading.

“About two months ago,” he recalled. “Ite feels good.”

Max Graham gave Wheeling a 3-0 advantage at 9:14 of the third period. Team captain Matthew Quercia assisted.

Quercia stole the puck in the Reading zone and his backhand was denied by Perets, but Graham skated to the loose puck and flipped it into the cage.

Six minutes later, Quercia took a pass from Brent Johnson on an empty-net breakaway. He didn’t disappoint to cap the scoring at 15:49. Logan Pietila also recorded a helper.

However, the action was far from over as eight players – four from each team – were sent off the ice with 1:53 remaining. Seven of the players received 10-minute misconduct penalties, while Graham was assessed a 5-minute charging major.

The Nailers were 3-for-3 on penalty kills and went 1-for-3 on the power play.

A total of 99 minutes in penalties were assessed, with Reading collecting 58 of them.

LOOSE PUCKS

– Urdahl was the Game’s No. 1 star, while Gauthier was No. 2 and Quercia No. 3.

– Healthy scratches for Wheeling included Aidan Sutter, Mike Posma, Jack Works and Tanner Andrew.