WHEELING, WV. — The Indy Fuel (2-1-0-0) fall to the Wheeling Nailers (1-2-0-0) in a heart breaker loss in the last minute of the third period at the Wesbanco arena Saturday night.
With the teams tied at 3-3 for the duration of the third period the game appeared as if it was headed towards extra time. However, the Nailers had other plans as Yushiroh Hirano fired a one timer from the right circle that bounced off of goaltender Charles Williams chest and Blake Siebenaler squeezed it into the corner of the net to lift the Nailers to victory at 19:36.
Wheeling started the scoring for the night when Alec Butcher drove to the net from the left circle dragging the puck with him until he was able to force it into to the right corner of the goal. The Fuel answered with two minutes left to go in the first, capitalizing on the power play Derian Plouffe rocked a wrist shot from the left circle that went over net minder Jordan Ruby's shoulder. Not long after the Nailers followed up with a backhanded shot from Cam Brown in the right crease to tip the scale to 2-1 at the end of the first.
In a game of touch and go the Nailers and the Fuel would exchange goals throughout the second and third period.
Graham Knott got his first goal with the Fuel at 2:02 in the second after coming out of the box at the end of a Wheeling power play and found himself wide open in front of the net and tapped in a pass from Sam Kurker to tie the game once again.
Butcher got his second of the night flicking in a rebound off of Lucas Kohls original shot at 10:23. The Fuel took advantage of the power play once again at 15:47 as Spencer Watson launched a shot from the top of the left circle to tie the game at 3-3 at the end of the second when Siebenaler would go on to brake the tie for a Nailers win.
The Fuel went two for four on the power play tonight and five for five on the penalty kill. Williams had 23 saves on 27 shots and Ruby had 26 saves on 29 shots.
The Nailers and the Fuel match up again tomorrow at Wesbanco arena for a 4:05 pm puck drop.
-- INDYFUELHOCKEY.COM --
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