WHEELING — The final chapter has been written in the long and winding story of the 2015-16 Wheeling Nailers, who captured our imagination with a run to the Kelly Cup Finals for the first time in 23 years. But along the way there were several peaks and valleys.

So before we look forward to the opening faceoff of next season — against the Brampton Beast on Oct. 15 at 7:05 p.m. inside WesBanco Arena — let’s take a look back on one wild, sensational ride.

First Half

With several key players, some wide-eyed but special rookies and Clark Donatelli, the franchise’s winningest coach back on board, expectations were naturally high. But the thing about the ECHL level is that everything can change without a moment’s notice. And boy did it.

Pittsburgh fired second-year NHL coach Mike Johnston on Dec. 13 and it sent a ripple-effect through the minor leagues. AHL coach Mike Sullivan was promoted to the big club and not long after Donatelli was summoned to the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins.

The flurry of movement left the Nailers with unproven first-year assistant David Gove at the helm. He was named interim coach before having that tag removed Jan. 21, but the team’s footing at that point was perilous at best.

At one point Wheeling had 13 players in the American Hockey League at the same time, and in mid-January was tied for 13th in the conference. The playoffs seemed out of the realm of possibility, to put it lightly. In fact, this team was going nowhere fast.

Second Half

Something — make that some things — began to happen and what once seemed lost slowly began to come back into focus.

The organization started to get healthy and players like John McCarron, Jarrett Burton, Ty Loney, Franky Palazzese and Brian Foster returned to Wheeling. Riley Brace, Jarrett Burton and Shane Bakker also eventually found their way back to the team. And Mathew Maione, Jordan Kwas, James Melindy, Andrew Ammon, Andrew Cerretani, Chris Ciotti and Dan O’Donoghue were all added by way of trade or waiver claims. Kevin Schulze came straight to the club out of college and assistant coach Jeff Christian hopped aboard.

Soon, business began to pick up and the Nailers started climbing the ladder.

McCarron and Loney turned into rookie stars, as did Cody Wydo, a former Hobey Baker finalist out of nearby Robert Morris. Danny Fick came into his own as a rookie defenseman. It wasn’t long after the club took on the ‘Wheeling Bad Boys’ persona.

Still, as hard and as far as they climbed, it wasn’t until the next-to-last day of the regular season that the Nailers clinched a playoff berth, with a come-from-behind, 4-3 victory against Reading behind a relief appearance from Casey DeSmith. The next night it was again DeSmith — he went on to backstop the Baby Pens through their entire playoff run — who shut down the Royals to give Wheeling the No. 5 seed.

The Eastern Conference was never the same.

First Round

High-flying, cocky Florida was up first in what was expected to be a track meet of a series. It didn’t disappoint because the majority of it was played on special teams — there were a combined 68 power plays. With Bakker, the captain, and Zack Torquato back in the lineup, Wheeling received a much-needed boost.

Game 1: Wheeling blitzed the Everblades by a 6-3 score behind a goal and three assists from Wydo, two goals by McCarron and a goal and an assist from Ammon. Palazzese stopped 25 shots.

Game 2: Florida evened things with a 4-1 victory. Anton Zlobin scored the lone Nailers goal while Palazzese notched 35 saves.

Game 3: The Blades jumped to a 4-1 lead after two and coasted to win, 6-3. Brace registered a goal and two assists while Foster took the loss in relief, stopping 12 of 14. Florida scored twice on the power play and once shorthanded.

Game 4: Needing a victory to knot the series at 2-2, Wheeling got it by scoring three times in the third period of a 5-4 victory. McCarron (two goals) and Brace each came through with three-point nights and Foster stopped 25.

Game 5: The Nailers jumped ahead 4-1 but had to hold off a third-period rally for a 4-3 victory and 3-2 lead in the series. Maione, who earned ECHL Defenseman of the Year, collected three points while Brace and Loney each had a goal and an assist. Foster turned aside 26.

Game 6: This was the clincher as Wheeling sent the Everblades to the offseason. At this point Burton was back in the lineup, but it was Bakker who stole the show. He netted the winner — his first ECHL goal of the season — at 10:40 of the third period as the Nailers won the series, 4-2, and the game, 2-1. Foster was marvelous with 43 saves.

Second Round

Next up was rival Reading. But before the series started adversity — an enemy many times tamed by this club — struck again. Gove took a leave of absence from the team, which has had little comment on the situation to this date. That left the club in control of Christian, who became its third coach in one season.

No problem.

Game 1: Behind two goals by Wydo and a pair of assists from Burton, Wheeling took the opener 4-1 at WesBanco Arena. Foster stopped 18 of 19.

Game 2: It looked as though the Nailers were going to be too much for Reading, but just as we began to think that the scoreboard got reversed. Derek Army re-joined the team but his presence couldn’t stop a 4-2 loss in which Matt Tabrum and Clark Seymour were the goal scorers. Foster denied 34 of 38.

Game 3: The Royals jumped on top early and emerged with a 4-1 victory as Bakker scored the lone goal. Foster was charted with 27 stops.

Game 4: Faced with the possibility of going down 3-1 in the series, the Nailers clawed back to even it with a 2-1 thriller. Wydo won it with a breakaway goal at 4:22 of the third overtime. Palazzese was masterful, stopping 42 shots.

Game 5: Any momentum gained was soon lost, as the Royals emerged with a 3-1 victory to send the series back to WesBanco Arena with the Nailers needing to sweep the final two to advance.

Game 6: The Nailers exploded in the third period to snap a 2-2 tie as McCarron, Burton, Seymour, O’Donoghue (two) and Army found the back of the net in the third en route to an 8-3 victory that set up a winner-take-all Game 7. Foster turned aside 32 shots.

Game 7: Fans went home happy when Brace sent the Nailers to the conference finals with a goal at 19:22 of overtime, giving the home team the series. Reading had tied things with 1:40 remaining, but Wheeling did not wilt. Foster made 33 saves in a 4-3 victory, while Kwas had a three-point night and Brace added two more.

Eastern Conference Finals

This is where even the bravest Nailers fan had to admit it was probably going to end. South Carolina had a suffocating defense and once it got the lead squeezed the life out of the opposition. But as Wheeling’s playoff shirts said ”We ain’t going nowhere.”

Game 1: A combination of that defense and the Nailers seeming a bit in awe led to the Stingrays’ rather easy 3-0 victory in the opener. Wheeling got off 33 shots, but Vitek Vanicek stopped them all.

Game 2: It looked as though this series might be over in a hurry as Wheeling found itself in another 3-0 hole with six minutes remaining. But not so fast. Seymour, Paul Cianfrini and McCarron scored to put it into overtime and Burton finished off a beautiful rush between he, McCarron and Brace with a power-play winner at 5:03 of the extra session.

Game 3: The Bad Boys followed that up with a defensive gym, holding S.C. to 19 shots in a 2-1 victory. Burton and Army scored in the third period to give Wheeling a 2-1 victory in which Palazzese stopped 18 of 19.

Game 4: The Rays reasserted themselves as the favorite with a 4-2 victory. Three of those came in the third period. Brace and Loney each had a goal and an assist for Wheeling.

Game 5: South Carolina put a stranglehold on the series by winning a 3-1 game in which it again scored twice in the third period. Foster made 35 saves but the Nailers could muster only Wydo’s first-period goal.

Game 6: Facing elimination, the Nailers came out flat and S.C. took an early 2-0 lead. Wheeling eventually retook the upperhand, 3-2, on two power-play goals by Zlobin and one at even strength by McCarron. The Rays tied it almost midway through the third, only to see Burton tally at 18:42 of overtime.

Game 7: The Nailers became the first team in ECHL history to win Games 6 and 7 on the road, using a three-goal third period to do it. Burton, Kwas and Loney tallied in the first 5:03 of the final period of a 5-2 victory. Foster stopped 28.

Kelly Cup Final

The last gauntlet proved to be the one Wheeling could not get through. Defending Kelly Cup champion Allen fell behind 2-1 in the series but won the next three to claim its second consecutive crown. The Ohio Valley turned out in droves for Games 3-5 as more than 13,000 fans packed WesBanco Arena. Unfortunately that mass of humanity saw the home team lose 2 of 3 games.

Game 1: The Nailers fell behind 2-0 before Bakker tallied shorthanded. But the Americans netted three of the next five for a 5-3 victory. McCarron and Zlobin notched PPGs and Foster made 27 saves.

Game 2: Wheeling let Allen know it wasn’t going to be pushed around as Army, Seymour, Wydo, Zlobin and Burton scored five straight goals before the home team got on the board. Allen responded, but Maione and McCarron again found the net for a 7-1 Nailers lead after two. The Americans didn’t quit as they scored five in the third period before Palazzese came on in relief to close the door on a 7-6 victory.

Game 3: With a raucous crowd of 3,484 on hand, the Nailers took a 2-1 series lead on James Melindy’s first and only postseason goal at 7:25 of the third period in a 3-2 victory. Loney and Zlobin also scored, while Palazzese stopped 28.

Game 4: It was the turning point of the season, and it went the wrong way on what we know now a bad call before a standing-room-only sellout. Tied 1-1 it appeared Burton had put the Nailers on top  by banging in a loose puck on the left side of the cage. But it was waived off and called incidental contact on the goaltender. The referee was out of position and the call was incorrect. Wheeling eventually took that 2-1 lead on a Wydo goal, but Allen scored the next three to win 4-2.

Game 5: Wheeling rallied to tie it on Wydo’s power-play goal with less than four minutes left in regulation, but Allen won it 14 seconds into overtime to send it back to Texas with the Nailers again having to win twice on the road to stave off elimination. Burton also scored.

Game 6: Allen got a pair of first period power-play goals and Wheeling was never able to fully recover. McCarron scored midway through the second and Wydo got his team back within one at 12:54 of the third, but it wasn’t enough. PPs in the game were 4-1 in the Americans’ favor, despite the Nailers carrying the play and outshooting them 33-13 in the final 40 minutes.

Numbers

* If you include one preseason game in Wheeling and another in Wilkes-Barre, rookie defenseman Brett Stern was in the lineup for an even 100 games this season.

* The Nailers won a franchise-record 14 playoff games.

* More than 130,000 fans walked through the turnstiles of WesBanco Arena this season.

* Palazzese became just the second Wheeling goalie to win 20-plus games in a season twice.

* When combining regular and postseasons, Brace led the team with 94 points (31g-63a). Wydo was the leading goal scorer with 35 and tallied 71 points (35g-36a). Maione registered 67 points (13g-54a).

* Next season will be the 25th anniversary of the Nailers arriving in Wheeling.

Shawn Rine can be reached via email at: srine@theintelligencer.net