ECHL: Heartlanders Pick Up First Win of the Weekend vs. Nailers

CORALVILLE, IA – The Iowa Heartlanders (10-25-9) hosted the Wheeling Nailers (20-21-5) tonight (Feb. 17) for their first of three games this weekend for the Landers’ Cancer Awareness series.

Sporting their pink specialty jerseys, the Landers hit the ice for puck drop at 7 pm CST. Just three seconds after the puck hits the ice, new guy, Steven Leonard, drops gloves with Nailers’ Cam Hausinger – both are served with matching majors. The Landers had a few good scoring opportunities, but none were successful. The physicality in the game stayed consistently intense for the first period. With 14:57 left in the period, Justin Wells and Félix Paré drop the gloves. The refs had just finished assigning penalties, and the game only just resumed when Leonard dropped the gloves for a second time with Peter Laviolette (13:49).

With 8:26 left in the first, Tanner MacMaster netted his first goal of the season with an assist from Brendan Robbins.  

The energy from the first period was still in the air when Micheal Pastujov scored with an assist from Tyler Busch on their first shot of the second period, leading the Nailers 2-0. Shortly after, Landers kill off another penalty when James Sanchez is called for high-sticking. The Landers then went on a powerplay before successfully killing off two more penalty kills in the second.

The first two minutes of the third are whistle-less – a much-needed break after all of the stoppages for fights in the first. Brooklyn Kalmikov kicks off the scoring for the Nailers with 17:46 remaining in the game. The teams battle in a 2-1 game with minimal stoppages. With the period half over, Nailers’ Tyler Drevitch goes off for a holding call, but the Landers cannot capitalize on the powerplay.

With 4:04 left in the game, Pastujov sends a pass to Busch on a breakaway, and he’s able to capitalize on it, giving the Landers a 3-1 lead. The Nailers pull their goaltender with 2:00 left. Just seconds after Nailers goaltender, Barone, gets to the bench, Leonard has scored on the empty net. Grabbing his first goal as a Heartlander and increasing the lead 4-1. Less than 15 seconds later, Barone is back in the net, and Leonard scores his second goal. 

In his first game in the heartland, Steven Leonard opened the game with a pair of fights and closed it with a matching pair of goals. The Landers and Nailers will meet again at Xtreme Arena tomorrow for the second of their three-game series.