With their 6-4 loss to the Wheeling Nailers on Wednesday night at Xtream Arena, the Iowa Heartlanders were officially eliminated from Kelly Cup Playoff contention.

Iowa has dropped its last six games and is now 27-31-8-1 on the season. The Heartlanders are in last place in the ECHL Central Division with 63 standings points. The top four teams in each ECHL division make the Kelly Cup Playoffs.

Though the Heartlanders had a 4-3 lead midway through the second period of Wednesday’s game, they still couldn’t manage a win. Iowa allowed three consecutive Wheeling goals in the second frame, effectively ending the game.

“We lost too many footraces,” Heartlanders head coach Gerry Fleming said. “Same mistakes that we’ve been talking about for most of the year. Wrong side of the puck, at times. At the end of the day, it came down to battles, and we lost too many of them.”

The Nailers scored the first two goals of Wednesday’s affair, putting the puck in the back of the net twice in 10 minutes. Iowa scored all four of its goals in the first two periods it played against Wheeling.

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The Heartlanders have now dropped nine out their last 10 games. In that span, they’ve earned four standings points. Iowa could’ve racked up a maximum of 20 points during that stretch.

“It’s just a combination of things,” Fleming said of his team’s current losing streak. “It’s one, what I just mentioned, lost battles. Two, defensive breakdowns and turnovers. Anytime you turn the puck over, but especially at the offensive or defensive line, it’s death, and that was a perfect example of that tonight.”

With five games left on their schedule, the Heartlanders can finish the season with a maximum of 73 standings points. Iowa will lose all postseason tiebreaking situations it’s involved in.

Unusual series pattern

Wednesday’s contest marked the end of the Iowa-Wheeling series for the 2021-22 season, which included seven games. The road club won every matchup.

Wheeling came away with the first three wins from Oct. 27 to Nov. 27. The Heartlanders beat the Nailers on Jan. 22 and 23 and Feb. 5 at WesBanco Arena in West Virginia. Wheeling clinched the season series with a win Wednesday.

Up next

The Heartlanders will face the Kalamazoo Wings on Friday at 7 p.m. in Xtream Arena. Like Wednesday, the Heartlanders will wear their third jerseys, featuring a Wild Prairie Rose.

Iowa is 3-3-3-0 against Kalamazoo in 2021-22.