Florida continues dominance over Mississippi

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ESTERO, FL – The Florida Everblades continued their dominance over the Mississippi Sea Wolves in the two game set played this weekend in Estero at Germain Arena.  
 
A pair of strong wins this weekend has Florida the victor in all six games with Mississippi this season and is the 10th consecutive win against them overall.
 
FRIDAY 1/09/09 – FLORIDA – 3    /    MISSISSIPPI – 0
The Blades came out strong the first period.   They made quality shots, one of them so hard that it actually spun goaltender Ryan Munce around it a circle as he landed on his back to make a great save.
 
Florida struck first with Noah Babin scoring at 3:11 of the first period.   Captain Kevin Baker added his goal with only one second left on their power play opportunity at 17:57, leading Florida to a 2-0 lead at the end of the first. Mississippi looked soft on the ice allowing Florida to outplay them at all positions.   Florida out shot the Sea Wolves 23 to 11. This is the most shots on goal in a period by the Blades so far this season.
 
The second period started with the Blades on a power play.   A misplayed puck allowed the Sea Wolves a terrific opportunity to score but netminder David Leggio was quick on the draw with his glove hand.   Florida exerted consistent heavy pressure and limited Mississippi’s shots on goal to just four.
 
Mark Lee scored for the Blades at 6:55 of the third leading Mississippi to call their time out to try and regroup as they were now down by three.   Florida had several power play chances but unfortunately reverted back to their pattern of excessive passing of the puck and few shots on goal.
 
The Blades still had a strong third period peppering Munce with a total of 50 shots on goal.   Blades player highlights: Brad Zanon had a few great hits, Ernie Hartlieb worked the net hard and David Leggio earned his third shut out of the season.
 
Ryan Munce, Mississippi goaltender, was excellent in his net, stopping 47 of 50 shots.   The score could have been much higher if not for Munce who showed he is a strong, sharp player in the net.
 
GOALTENDERS:
David Leggio (earned the win and his third shutout of the season) 11-3-1, stopped 20/20
Ryan Munce (suffered the loss) 11-10-0, stopped 47 of 50
 
POWER PLAY:
Florida 1 for 5;    Mississippi 0 for 4.
 
3 STARS OF THE GAME:
1.   David Leggio (FL), 2. Aaron Brocklehurst (FL), 3. Matt Auffrey (FL)
 
SATURDAY 1/10/09 – FLORIDA – 2    /    MISSISSIPPI – 1
The teams out on the ice started the game as if sizing each other up.   While the play was consistently back-and-forth there was no clear dominance in the first half of period number one.
 
They traded good shots with Munce robbing Blade Ernie Hartlieb, who gave another strong offensive performance tonight, on a great scoring opportunity.
 
Tempers flared and finally boiled over into fighting.   Pushing and shoving ensued and then punches were thrown behind the Florida net.   Four players headed to the penalty box, two from each team.   Blades players Colin Nicholson and Peter Metcalf got five minutes each for fighting.   Mississippi players Mike Berry and Alexandre Parent also got five minutes for fighting.   Berry earned an extra two for slashing and gave Florida the man advantage.
 
Mississippi finally caught a break on the power play and was rewarded with a goal by Jason Tejchma on their power play opportunity.
 
While Florida out shot them 14-10, Mississippi ended up being the strong team this period.   With Munce again in their net, the Sea Wolves kept the Blades from scoring in the first.
 
Florida got an early second period 5 on 3 power play, but again their passing was excessive with too few shots on the net.   However, they put on pressure during the rest of the period and Mark Lee found an open scoring lane at 5:27 on the power play, tying the score at 1-1.
 
The pushing and shoving continued, but no more penalties were incurred.   A late second period penalty for Mississippi gave the Blades an early third period man advantage of 1:48.
 
The Blades still couldn’t score on the power play and the scuffle behind the nets continued.   The Blades kept shooting and Munce kept turning the pucks away.   Through sheer perseverance Mark Lee took a great pass from Matt Auffrey and finally beat Munce.   The game winning goal was scored at 17:07 of the third with Florida breathing a sigh of relief that there would be no overtime.
 
Once again, Munce was stellar in the Mississippi net, stopping 91 of 96 shots in the series, but unfortunately adding two hard losses to his record.
 
GOALTENDERS:
Anton Khudobin (earned the win) 12-5-1, stopped 33/34
Ryan Munce (suffered the loss) 11-11-0, stopped 44/46
 
POWER PLAY:
Florida 1 for 8;    Mississippi 0 for 5.
 
3 STARS OF THE GAME:
1.   Mark Lee (FL), 2. Ryan Munce (MIS), 3. Anton Khudobin (FL)
 
PLAYER MOVES AND NEWS:
Danick Bouchard – to Albany River Rats of the AHL
Patrick Bordeleau – to Springfield Falcons of the AHL
Andrew Sweetland – returns from Rochester Americans of the AHL
Players and Staff in 2009 All Star Game:   Kevin Baker (right-wing), Aaron Brocklehurst (defense), David Leggio (Goal), and Jason McDonald (equipment manager).
Jason Nobili, former Blades Assistant Coach (under previous Coach Gerry Fleming), has been relieved of his duties at the Coach of the Reading Royals.
 
The Blades now leave on a five game Southern Division Road trip.   They will be gone for six days and their next game is January 13th at 7pm against the Charlotte Checkers.
 
Contact the author at: sharon.weatherhead@prohockeynews.com
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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