ESTERO, Fla. – With three regular-season games left on the schedule and 2024 Kelly Cup Playoffs berths and seeding still hanging in the balance, the Florida Everblades needed a big-time performance against the Jacksonville Icemen Wednesday night at Hertz Arena.
That big-time performance is exactly what the back-to-back Kelly Cup Champions got up and down the lineup in an impressive 5-2 victory over the Icemen that sent 6,205 enthusiastic Blades fans home happy. Florida stretched its winning streak to four games, while Jacksonville has lost three games in a row.
On offense, Bobo Carpenter led the Everblades with two goals and an assist, while Cam Johnson came up with his latest patented clutch performance, making 25 saves and becoming the first ECHL goaltender to win 26 games this season.
With 85 points on the season, the Everblades sit in third place in the ECHL South Division. The Blades have two games remaining against fourth-place South Carolina which has 84 points and will be at Hertz Arena to wrap up the regular season on Friday and Saturday. Fifth-place Orlando has 83 points with two games to play. Florida is in pursuit of Greenville and Jacksonville which have 89 and 88 points, respectively, and three games apiece left on the schedule.
An extremely busy first period saw the Everblades open the scoring with a pair of goals, before taking a 3-1 lead into the first intermission. Will Reilly struck on the power play just 2:36 into the contest with his 10th marker of the season, while Oliver Chau added his 26th goal of the year at the 11:26 mark to stake the Blades to the early 2-0 lead. Chau and Sean Josling earned assists on the Reilly goal, while Carpenter and Cole Moberg added helpers on Chau’s goal.
After Jacksonville’s Matheson Iacopelli got the Icemen on the board at 12:41, Carpenter picked up his third point of the period, scoring his 26th goal of the year, a power-play tally with under 30 seconds left in the frame, as Florida went up 3-1 heading into the first break. Josh Ho-Sang and Chau earned the assists as the Everblades took advantage of a five-minute power-play thanks to a major cross-checking penalty and a game misconduct whistled on Jacksonville’s Garrett Cockerill at the 16:33 mark.
Two early goals in the middle period opened up a 5-1 lead for the Everblades. Carpenter continued his onslaught with his second goal and third point of the night just 51 seconds into the middle period, as he scored the Everblades’ third power-play goal of the game and gave Florida a 4-1 lead. Ho-Sang fed Carpenter for the second time on the night, while Will Reilly also picked up an assist.
In his fourth game with the Everblades, Jesse Lansdell notched up his first professional goal at the 6:46 mark off helpers by Jordan Sambrook and Cam Darcy, chasing Jacksonville goaltender Matt Vernon (25-9-2-0) and giving the Blades a four-goal lead.
Jacksonville’s Brendan Harris scored in the closing seconds to close out the game . On the night, the Everblades outshot the Icemen 34-27.
The Everblades have just two regular-season games remaining as the South Carolina Stingrays come to town on Friday, April 12 and Saturday, April 13 at 7:30 p.m. and 7:00 p.m., respectively. Friday night’s contest will be part of a special 239 Friday, as fans can purchase two tickets, two orange seltzers and a souvenir program for just $39. Also, there will be a Joe Pendenza Bobblehead Giveaway courtesy of Waste Pro.
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