ESTERO, Fla. – The Florida Everblades just completed a brief three-game road trip, hosted by the Kalamazoo Wings and the Toledo Walleye. FRIDAY 1/28/11: KALAMAZOO: 3 / FLORIDA: 0 The Everblades were prevented from scoring in their 60 minutes of play on Friday night in Michigan to the delight of the Wings fans in attendance. The first period was scoreless, but still saw plenty of action as Wings net-minder Ryan Nie and Blades goalie Bobby Goepfert traded some pretty spectacular saves. Florida tried to score 11 times in the first, while Kalamazoo shot nine times with no success. At the End of first period both teams remained scoreless. The first goal went in at 6:31 of the second period when Kalamazoo’s Kory Karlander scored his 16 goal of the season. The Blades continued to pounce on Nie with a whopping twenty shots during the period, as he turned each and every one of them away. The Wings finalized the win in the third, when they limited the Blades to just eight shots and added a pair of goals. At 5:31 of the third, Aaron Clarke made the score 2-1. Goal number three was added late in the period on a short-handed, empty-net goal by Sam Ftorek. This was the 12 short-handed goal scored against the Blades this season. The Wings took the win 3-0. Ryan Nie posted the shut out with 39 saves. Goephert stopped 31 shots on goal for the night. SATURDAY 1/29/11: FLORIDA: 7 / TOLEDO: 3 The Everblades came out strong and ready to play on Saturday night in Toledo. This was a different team from Friday night. The shots tonight, 39 once again, were quality shots with seven of them finding the back of Toledo’s net. The real highlight of the night was a pair of hat tricks – one by each team! The first twenty minutes were fast and furious with the Blades opening the scoring at 2:51 with a goal by Francis Lemieux. Alex Imbeault, scored the first of his three goals of the evening at 9:02 on the power play, putting the Blades up 2-0 by the end of the first. Five total goals peppered the second period; at one time giving Florida a commanding 5-0 lead. Imbeault scored his second of the night at 4:04 of the second period. Drew Larman put the Blades up by four goals when he scored at 9:39. Mike McKenzie’s power play goal at 17:30 made the score 5-0. The Blades temporarily lost some focus as they allowed Toledo’s Tyler Doig to score twice in a span of 12 seconds: 18:22 and 18:34 of the Second period. The third period started where the second left off. Doig continued his scoring barrage as he notched the Walleye hat trick first. Just 1:31 into the third, he scored on the power play. In a little over three minutes of game play, Doig scored his three goals, the only ones scored by the Walleye tonight. Not to be outdone, Florida’s Imbeault quieted the cheering crowd with his own hat trick. His tally came a little over a minute later at 2:44. Francis Lemieux completed the scoring for the night at 4:26. The Blades took the win, 7-3 over the Walleye. Goepfert posted 33 saves, while Joe Palmer in the net for the Walleye had 32 for the loss. SUNDAY 1/30/11: TOLEDO: 8 / FLORIDA: 4 After a very good effort – and win – by the Blades on Saturday night, tonight they suffered their worst loss of the season. Rookie goaltender Shane Owens appeared in his first professional game tonight for the Blades. Owen was signed on Saturday to an amateur tryout agreement. The 20-year-old is a native of Ontario and began the season with the QJML, posting a 3.09 goals against average and a 0.913 save percentage. Toledo opened the game with their first goal just 22 seconds into the first period. Mike Hedden scored easily on a breakaway opportunity. Midway through the period Florida’s Francis Lemieux scored the first of his three goals tonight. Lemieux’s 23 goal of the season was scored at 10:01. Toledo pulled ahead with a goal by Scott Fletcher. He capitalized when Owens tried to clear the puck, scoring with 1.3 seconds left in the period. Toledo scored first again in the second with a power play goal by Kyle Rodgers at 6:35. The Blades cranked up the pace and evened the score with goals by Matt Beca (11:30) and Francis Lemieux ( 14:02, his second of the night), at 3-3. Toledo took firm control of the game in the third period. Doig was first. Then the eventual game-winner was scored by Kyle Rodgers (his second of the game) at 5:28. Florida’s Francis Lemieux made his mark tonight as he scored his third goal at 8:31 for his hat trick. This was Lemieux’s third of the season and fifth of his career. The score was now 5-4 with Toledo leading, but that was as close as the Blades were going to get. Bobby Goepfert was now in net for the Blades, but Toledo kept up their scoring ways. Mike Hedden (13:12), Dave Phillips (14:07) and Zack Torquato (18:28) finished out with goals giving Toledo a four goal edge, to end the game with a final score of 8-4. Spratt took the win in the net for the Walleye with 31 saves. BLADES NOTES: Forward Cedric McNicoll has been placed on the 21-day IR after suffering an undisclosed injury during the game on 1/22 against Reading. This is his second extended trip to the IR this season. The ECHL has finalized their rulings for the brawls during the 1/22 game in Florida against the Reading Royals. There has been much discussion and disagreement with the results, which are as follows: FLORIDA : Elgin Reid (5 games, fine); Mike Egener (3 games, fine), Coach Greg Poss (1 game, fine) and an organizational fine. READING : Todd Perry (5 games, fine), Ryan Donald (2 games, fine), Yannick Riendeau (1 game, fine), Coach Larry Courville (1 game, fine) and an organizational fine. The next home game is Wednesday, February 3, at Germain Arena when the Blades will be hosting the Greenville Road Warriors. Contact the writer at: sweatherhead@prohockeynews.com
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