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Trenton falls to Wheeling 6-5 in a shootout
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The Trenton Devils fell to the Wheeling Nailers 6-5 in a shootout on Wednesday night after welcoming back two players from last season: Matt Cohen and Gerald Coleman, and Brett Wilson who was recently acquired from the Las Vegas Wranglers in a trade over the weekend.
Kyle Kucharski snuck a shot past Wheeling goaltender Jordan Parise 5:15 into the first period to put the T-Devils up 1-0.
That lead lasted for exactly 0:28 seconds when Wheeling’s Aaron Clarke knotted the score at 1-1 on a nice passing play from Lane Caffaro. Then with Jeremy Akeson in the penalty box for slashing, T.J. Fox of the Nailers deflected in an Alex Grant slap shot from the point about 8:00 later. Wheeling took a 2-1 lead into the 1st intermission
Wheeling added to their lead with a goal by Thomas Beauregard off of a give-and-go pass from T.J. Fox, which beat David Caruso on his catching glove side at the 11:25 mark of the 2nd period.
Trevor Kell pulled the T-Devils back to within one when he scored a power play goal by deflecting a Tim Kunes slap shot from the point just two minutes later.
The game seemed to fall out of the reach for the Devils as Wheeling piled on two more goals when Corey Couturier and Thomas Beauregard were able to beat Caruso between the pads and over the catching glove, respectively.
Down 5-2 the T-Devils coach Rick Kowalsky pulled David Caruso and replaced him with recently returned goaltender Gerald Coleman. Having their #1 goalie from last year between the pipes the Devils seemed to regain their confidence as 4:03 into the 3rd stanza Matt Cohen scored a power play goal with a wrist shot from the blue line. Tim Kunes scored for the Devils 3:00 later off of a rebound.
With the T-Devils ripping his net minder for 2 quick goals, Wheeling coach Greg Puhalski replaced him with Adam Berkhoel, who appeared in 28 games for the Wilkes-Barre Scranton Penguins of the AHL last year.
It took only 1:14 for the T-Devils to tie the game at 5-5 when Trevor Kell fed a pass from the left side of the crease to Jeremy Akeson who was able to propel the puck into a wide open net as Berkhoel couldn‘t make it across in time to make the save.
Trenton was able to hold Wheeling to 6 shots for the entire 3rd period and 1 shot in overtime to force a shootout. But the Devils luck ran out in the skills competition portion of the game. Only Tim Kunes managed to score a goal for the T-Devils during the shootout, out-waiting Berkhoel and eventually getting the Wheeling goaltender over-commit in one direction so that he could tuck the puck in the net to the goalie’s right. Coleman, who on paper will be credited with not allowing any goals during the game (shootout goals do not count towards scoring totals because they are not scored during regulation time), however he was beaten by 3 of Wheeling’s 4 shooters; twice through the legs and once top-shelf.
Game notes:
With the win, Wheeling broke a 3-game losing streak which started last Friday at home versus Cincinnati. Their only other win of the season came on the road against the Gwinnett Gladiators on October 18th. The Trenton Devils played only one game this past weekend, a 1-0 overtime loss to the Toledo Walleye, the ECHL’s 2nd expansion team for this season. David Caruso made 43 saves on 44 shots in the losing effort. It was reported that over 5,300 fans made it out to the Lucas County Arena to see the Walleye take on the T-Devils.
The Trenton Devils will have a pair of games this coming weekend on October 30th and 31st. On Friday night they will host the Johnstown Chiefs at the Sovereign Bank Arena for their second meeting of the year. Last week the T-Devils defeated the Chiefs by a score of 5-2 for what has been the team’s only victory of the season. The Chiefs are the only team in the ECHL without an affiliation agreement with either a NHL or AHL club. On Saturday the T-Devils travel up to First Arena in Elmira, NY to take on the Elmira Jackals. The Jackals are still undefeated on the season, having five wins to their credit. Justin (3 g, 7 a) and Tyler (2 g, 8 a) Donati lead the Jackals and the league with 10 points each, while Chanse Fitzpatrick leads the team with 4 goals in 5 games. The Elmira Jackals are the ECHL affiliate of the Ottawa Senators.
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