ESTERO, Fla – To say this game was intense would be a grave understatement. The intensity was very one-sided though, in favor of the Florida Everblades. Unfortunately, that intensity was not enough, even in overtime, to force a Game 7 in the Kelly Cup Sou thern Division finals.
The Florida Everblades pressured the South Carolina Stingrays early and often. They forced them to take several early back-to-back penalties in the first period. Although they liberally peppered Jonathon Boutin throughout the power play, they were unable to convert and score.
The Stingrays opened the scoring with Pierre-Luc O’Brien finding the back of David Leggio’s net at 13:21 of the first. The ‘Blades answered quick ly with Milan Gajic taking a pass as he was leaving the penalty box and scoring at 13:59. The teams ended the period tied. Florida were very aggressive in pockets of play and out shot South Carolina by a 16-3 margin, but their one lapse hurt them.
South Carolina opened the second period with much more jump in their step. They worked hard and fierce and demonstrated an outstanding effort on their penalty kills to keep Florida off the score board. Florida’s Andrew Sweetland had a golden opportunity with a wide open net and failed to score.
Once again Florida dominated, out-shooting the Stingrays 9-5, but a misplay around the net gave the visitors another opportunity which they again capitalized on. After back-to-back power plays, Nikita Kashirsky deflected a shot past Leggio at 18:33 for the only power play goal of the game. The second ended with South Carolina ahead 2-1.
The third period saw almost total dominance by Florida as they out shot the Stingrays 21-3. Florida kept up the pressure and continuously sent pucks flying at and around the South Carolina net.
The Stingrays only registered three shots in the third, but once again they were very opportunistic and scored on a rebound. At this point they had scored three goals on just eleven shots. Trent Campbell scored the goal at 13:11 of the third giving South Carolina a 3-1 lead.
While it looked like the game was probably over for the ‘Blades, they kept the pressure on while South Carolina relaxed a bit. The Blades pulled goalie David Leggio with about 90 seconds left in the game in a must score – and score twice – situation.
Florida miraculously scored two quick goals. Doug O’Brien scored the first one at 18:31 and Gajic notched the second one at 19:41 of the third period. The Germain Arena fans were on their feet and loudly proclaimed their appreciation for the efforts of their team. The period ended in a tie and the teams headed into overtime.
The play in overtime went back-and-forth with Florida out shooting the Stingrays 6-3, but once again, South Carolina managed to score. Zach Takir ended the ‘Blades quest for the cup at 9:04 of the first overtime period.
The Brabham Cup-winning Florida Everblades season came to an end with a major upset dealt to them by the South Carolina Stingrays. Now instead of the Everblades the Stingrays will play the Cincinnati Cyclones in the American Conference finals.
In the end this game was played by two completely different teams. The ‘Blades worked fast and furious with bursts of speed and intensity. But it was the Stingrays who weathered the storm and waited for their few opportunities – and took them. Florida out-shot South Carolina by an unbelievable 52-14, however the Stingrays won the game and eliminated Florida from the play-offs. You can’t say the Everblades did not have their chances as they had seven power play opportunities and failed to score on any of them. Meanwhile South Carolina made the most of scoring opportunities, scoring four times on 14 shots. The Stingrays had a very capable and hot goalie in Jonathon Boutin who stopped 49 of the 52 shots the ‘Blades threw at him.
The Everblades will long remember this series and wonder just what went wrong.
Commentary and Notes What went wrong for the Everblades?
The Florida Everblades had a dynamite team this year, even better than years’ past. They had the league leader in many scoring titles in Kevin Baker. They had an outstanding goaltender in David Leggio. It appeared they had “the’ team.
They also had Coach Malcolm Cameron, who led the Texas Wildcatters last year with their phenomenal win record. They even added in a Cup-winning coach to assist Cameron and make the dream a reality in John Marks, but it wasn’t enough to knock out the Stingrays.
The ECHL fined the Florida Everblades organization for failure to adhere to the league media access policy after Cameron shut the locker room to reporters after their loss in Game 5. The fine, the amount of which has not been disclosed, occurred in South Carolina.
Contact the author at: sharon.weatherhead@prohockeynews.com
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