Most of the top scorers from last season are gone. And sure enough, in their season debut, the Maine Mariners looked like they could use a finishing touch.

Three straight goals by the Wheeling Nailers spoiled the season opener for the Mariners, who lost 4-1 Friday night in front of an announced sellout crowd of 5,595 at Cross Insurance Arena.

Gabe Klassen, Jordan Martel, Phip Waugh and Kyle Jackson scored for the Nailers, Pittsburgh’s ECHL affiliate, while Evan Vierling scored the goal for the Mariners.

“It was there. I think the game was honestly there for the taking,” Maine Coach Terrence Wallin said. “It’s a new team, we’re looking to jell together, but I thought for the most part we created well. At the end of the day, I don’t know that we paid the price in effort.”

Transition was a theme for the Mariners throughout the preseason, as the team bid farewell to seven of its top 10 scorers from last season. The Mariners looked like a team trying to find some scoring punch from its new cast, going 0 for 3 on the power play while multiple rushes and good looks close to the net were unfulfilled.

Wallin said the woes were more about a lack of finishing, not finishers.

“I don’t think it has anything to do with one roster to the other. We just need to bear down on our scoring chances,” he said. “I think there was plenty of offense there, there were chances most of the night.”

After Wheeling struck first on a power-play goal by Klassen, Maine pulled even on a dazzling play when Vierling took a pass from Owen Pederson entering the zone, moved left into the high slot and fired a shot past Jaxon Castor (25 saves) to make it 1-1 with 11:02 to go in the first.

“That’s my old team, so it definitely feels good scoring the goal tonight,” said Vierling, who atoned for a missed shot on a 2-on-0 rush two minutes prior.

The game was up for grabs, and Maine had chances to take the lead or pull even after Martel scored on the power play with 16:59 left in the second. Less than a minute after the Vierling goal, Patrick Guay missed a shot on a 2-on-1 opportunity. In the second period after Martel’s goal, Jacob Hudson couldn’t convert a chance near the post, and Vierling had an attempt after a net crash that slid just wide of the left pipe.

In the third, after Waugh made it 3-1, Matthew Philip gathered a rebound with the goalie trying to get back into position and fired high, then looked up in apparent exasperation.

Jackson rounded out the scoring with an empty-netter.

“We can’t get frustrated,” left wing Wyllum Deveaux said. “We just need to take it shift by shift. … We’re not going to look too far into the past or the future, we’re going to stay in the present moment and continue to battle.”

Players said they’re confident the scoring touch will show up in time.

“We’ve got a lot of great goal scorers in the room,” center Carter Johnson said. “Sometimes it’s a matter of timing, and guys finding their touch again. It’s the first game, still early, but there’s a lot of skill in the room.”

The Mariners acknowledged that the chemistry with so many new faces is not a finished product.

“The most important thing is to have a short memory on this one and move on to the next,” Johnson said. “Lots of good stuff, also some stuff we need to clean up, and unfortunately those things kind of resulted in the puck going in the back of our net. … (It’s our) first game as a group, we’re finding it still. The chemistry will come.”

Perhaps as soon as Saturday, when the teams meet again.

“I thought there were times we outplayed them, times they got us on our heels a little bit,” Vierling said. “(Saturday) we need to manage pucks better, hound pucks, get to the front of the net and find ways to score more goals. It’s kind of tough to win when you’re only scoring one goal.”