ESTERO , FL – Last season the Blades were 1-5-0 against their division rivals, the Gwinnett Gladiators. The result of this weeks three game series between them demonstrated that the Blades were not going to repeat those statistics. The Blades swept the Gladiators in three straight games: Monday 11/3 (in Gwinnett) and Friday 11/7 and Saturday 11/8 (in Florida). Monday 11/3 – ( Gwinnett, GA) – Everblades 6 – Gladiators – 2 This was the first game the Blades played against their former goalie, Kevin Nastiuk. Nastuik played in 5 games with the Albany River Rats (AHL) going 4-1 (2.31 GAA, 0.92 S%) and 14 games with the Florida Everblades (ECHL) posting a record of 6-5-2 (2.44 GAA, 0.912 S%) in 2007-2008 season. Unfortunately for Nastiuk, he lost two of three games in this series. The Blades were in fine form and won this outing 6-2. The Blades were on their game offensively and defensively. Offensively they scored six goals with three of them on the power play (3 for 9). Defensively the team defensively supported goalie David Leggio as he turned away an unbelievable 49 shots, 21 of those in the 3rd period. Florida killed off nine of ten power play opportunities for Gwinnett. Mathieu Roy rubbed salt in their wounds as he scored a short-handed goal in the third. This was a happy bus ride back to Florida for the Blades. The fun was just beginning. Three Stars of the game: (1) Ryan Lang, (2) David Leggio, (3) Kevin Baker Friday 11/7 – ( Estero, FL) – Everblades 3 – Gladiators – 1 Tonight’s game started off with a baseball flavor as the Everblades red carpet was rolled out on the ice for visitor Johan Santana of the New York Mets. He was recognized as he performed a ceremonial puck drop. Also in attendance were Minnesota Twins catcher, Joe Maurer and Tampa Bay Rays shortstop, Jason Bartlett. Friday become the third straight win in the books for the Blades. Florida came out strong and held off allowing the Gladiators a shot on goal until well past the five minute mark. The scoring didn’t begin until the second period when Yannick Tifu opened the scoring. The long awaited Tifu made a big impression in his first game on Monday when he assisted on two goals. The Blades scored twice more with goals by Danick Bouchard and a power play by Mathieu Roy. This was the third consecutive game that the Blades score three or more goals in the second. The only tally the Gladiators recorded in their two games in Florida was by Brandon Kaleniecki, a power play, midway through the second period. The Blades slowed down their offensive pace in the third as they were out shot 20-4. Anton Khudobin looked like a wizard in the net as he turned pucks away left and right and the Blades were able to successfully kill off four power play opportunities by Gwinnett. Kevin Nastiuk suffered his second consecutive loss to his former team. Three Stars of the game: (1) Anton Khudobin, (2) Danick Bouchard, (3) Mathieu Roy Saturday 11/8 – ( Estero, FL) – Everblades 4 – Gladiators 0 With the impressive win tonight, the Blades have now won 4 in a row and sit atop the Southern Division with 13 points (6-2-1). I spoke with Blades Coach Malcolm Cameron as he was watching his team in the pre-game skate. He said they were improving. “They look better, getting better and stronger each game, but we need to keep working hard”. The Blades are now 3-0 against the Gladiators this season. The shut out by Anton Khudobin was his first this season and the 5th in his career. For the second straight outing the teams ended scoreless in the first period. The Blades came out sluggish and lackluster. The Gladiators didn’t come out to play hard either. The Blades started their scoring with a tally by Jonathan Paiement two seconds after the end of a power play opportunity. The period got interesting as a serious lapse of miscommunication in front of the Florida net almost resulted in a bad goal. The Gladiators had an inadvertent period of 5-on-3 play advantage due to two Blades players losing their sticks in a scuffle. The Blades had to stay strong as there were three back-to-back penalties called on them. They remained on the penalty kill for a good portion of the second period of play. The highlight of the second period was a crowd pleasing short-handed goal by Colin Nicholson about midway through the game. The third period featured a barrage of shots against Gladiators goalie, Charlie Effinger. He batted away anything that came near him as he played without a stick as his broke. His teammates were continuously blocked by Blades players as they tried to hand him one of their sticks. The Blades added two more solid goals by Michael Grenzy and Captain Kevin Baker. The series ended with fighting and scuffling behind the Blades net filling up the penalty boxes with tired players with about two minutes left in the game. Three Stars of the game: (1) Anton Khudobin, (2) Kevin Baker, (3) Mathieu Roy I agree with Blades Coach Cameron. They are looking better. Contact the author at: sharon.weatherhead@prohockeynews.com
Related
You must be logged in to post a comment.