Photo by Joe Lovell The Wheeling Nailers' Tristan Thompson skates down the ice, puck in-tow Saturday against the Florida Everblades inside WesBanco Arena.

WHEELING – It just wasn’t meant to be.

Florida scored goals in the first two minutes of each period Saturday night to end a fine season by Wheeling with a 6-1 victory in penalty-fest Game 5 of the ECHL’s Kelly Cup Eastern Conference Finals before a crowd of 2,483 fans inside WesBanco Arena.

“That seemed to be the theme of the series. We didn’t have good starts all the way along,” first-year Wheeling head coach Ryan Papaioannou said. “I’ve got to credit our guys for sticking in those games, fighting back to find ways to stay in them. We just ran out of gas tonight.”

The Everblades won the series 4-1 and claimed the E.A. “Bud” Gingher Trophy and will face the winner of the Western Conference finals between Kansas City and Fort Wayne. The Mavericks lead that series 3-1 (Game 5 was Sunday night).

“Bad starts to all five games,” Papaioannou added. “We played the entire series with five defensemen – four on Friday night. “aniel Laatsch returned tonight to give us a body and some minutes, but I think we just ran out of health and energy.”

Anthony Romano (3g-1a) and Hudson Elynuik (1g-3a) led Florida in the series with four points each while Cam Johnson allowed seven goals over the five games, registering a .945 save percentage.

The Everblades, who are 12-2 in the 2026 Kelly Cup Playoffs, advance to the Kelly Cup Finals for the fourth time in five seasons, and for the eighth time in team history, extending their ECHL record. Florida has won an ECHL-record four championships, including three consecutive titles in 2022, 2023 and 2024. They also won in 2012.

“I still think we had a great year,” Papaioannou added. “I don’t think a lot of people expected us to be here, so I think we got a lot of mileage out of the group that we had. I think people would have given us a zero chance at winning a game in the series, so that battle we put up and the lineup put us in that position.”

The Everblades took a 1-0 lead just 37 seconds into the contest as Carson Gicewicz skated down the slot and rifled the puck along the ice and past Wheeling netminder Taylor Gauthier.

Wheeling drew even on a goal from Nolan Renwick at the 6-minute mark, but that would be the only puck to get behind Florida’s Cam Johnson as he stopped the other 28 shots he faced.

Matty De St. Phalle knocked the puck out of mid-air before slipping it to Renwick who slammed a one-timer into the back of the net. Craig Armstrong also assisted.

Florida scored three goals in the first seven minutes of the second period to take command and never looked back. Sam Stange, Oliver Chau and Anthony Romano each lit the lamp as the margin ballooned to 4-1.

Romano and Reid Duke capped the scoring in a wild third period which saw the teams combine for 121 minutes in penalties, including six misconducts and a game misconduct. Florida was assessed 62 of those. For the game there was a total of 149.

Gauthier finished with 21 saves.

LOOSE PUCKS

– The Eastern Conference championship trophy is named in recognition of E.A. “Bud” Gingher, who was Chairman of the ECHL Board of Governors from 1992-95. Gingher, who passed away in 2002, co-founded the Dayton Bombers in 1991 and owned the team for seven seasons, serving as President and Governor until selling the team in 1998. Gingher was inducted into the ECHL Hall of Fame in 2010.

– Chau played for Papaioannou with the Brooks Bandits.