News release
27 March 2013
Wednesday, March 27, 2013WHEELING, W.Va. - The Elmira Jackals enter the final week of the regular season battling for home ice advantage in the first round of the Kelly Cup Playoffs. Tonight the battleground is WesBanco Arena where the Jackals will pay a visit to the Wheeling Nailers.
WHO: Elmira Jackals - Ottawa/NHL & Binghamton/AHL (38-24-7) at Wheeling Nailers - Pittsburgh & Montreal/NHL and Wilkes-Barre/Scranton & Hamilton/AHL (30-28-11).
The Jackals are facing the Nailers tonight for the 10th, and final, time this season and fifth of five at WesBanco Arena. The Jackals are 6-3-0 against Wheeling this season which includes a 2-2-0 mark away from home. Elmira is trying to do something that only one other ECHL team (Reading) has done this season; win three games in Wheeling. The Nailers are 20-7-6 at home, and only Reading and Ontario have lost fewer regulation games at home than the Nailers. Elmira, though, has won by a goal in each of its last two trips here. When the Jackals visited on March 6, the held the Nailers to a season-low 15 shots on goal through regulation and overtime while managing 39 of their own.
The Jackals qualified for the Kelly Cup Playoffs for the sixth season in a row when they defeated Fort Wayne 5-2 at home last Friday. They have not missed the playoffs since joining the ECHL in 2007-08 and are in rare company. The only other Eastern Conference teams to make the playoffs every year since 07-08 are the Florida Everblades and South Carolina Stingrays. Elmira has finished in the top four two of the three seasons since the ECHL began conference-based playoffs.