LOVELAND, CO – Forward Drayson Bowman netted the game-winning goal late in the first period and added an assist, as Colorado defeated the Florida Everblades 3-1 in Game One of the Kelly Cup Final on Friday. Eagles goaltender Joe Cannata posted his league-leading 13th win of the playoffs, stopping 27 of the 28 shots he faced in the contest. The game, played before an announced crowd of 4,841, saw the two teams combine for 24 penalties and 98 penalty minutes as a slew of altercations arose in the late stages of the third period.
No one knew exactly what to expect in game one with the Eagles going on a short turnaround from Wednesday’s game seven victory over Fort Wayne and Florida not arriving in Colorado until Thursday after finding out who it was playing. The Everblades were put in the position of heading west due to a change in scheduling that had the Eagles hosting the first two games of the series because of a scheduling conflict at the Budweiser Events Center next week.
Colorado jumped on top early when defenseman Matt Register buried a shot from the blue line on the power play to give the Eagles a 1-0 edge just 4:45 into the contest. The drive by Register, who was last year’s playoff MVP, eluded Everblades goalie Martin Ouellette who was screened on the play.
The Eagles pounded away at the Everblades during the opening period, forcing Ouellette to make numerous saves that kept his team in the game. At the other end of the ice, Cannata had a relatively easy go of things as Florida had a hard time getting its offense untracked.
Bowman grew Colorado’s advantage when he powered his way into the zone along the left wing boards before lighting the lamp with a shot from the circle to give the Eagles a 2-0 lead with 27 seconds left in the period. When the opening 20 minutes of play came to an end, Colorado had a 17-8 advantage on the shot clock and a 2-0 lead where it counted on the scoreboard.
The Everblades, winners of the ECHL’s Brabham Cup as regular season champions, struck back in the second period when forward Sam Warning snagged an Eagles turnover in the Colorado zone. Using teammate John McCarron as a decoy, Warning snapped the puck past Cannata to trim the Eagles edge to 2-1 at the 8:02 mark of the middle frame. Warning’s unassisted tally was part of Florida’s flip of the script in the second period as the Everblades outshot Colorado by a count of 12-2.
As the teams settled into a classic defensive struggle in the third period, the tensions grew with every tick of the clock. Things exploded late in the third period when an open-ice hit by Colorado’s Gabriel Verpaelst caught Florida’s Michael Kirkpatrick, sending the Everblades forward to the ice where he laid for a couple of minutes as the trainers from both teams attended to him. With the powder keg lit, Shawn St-Amant gave the Eagles some insurance with an empty-netter at the 19:04 mark of the final frame to secure Colorado’s victory. From there, the contest devolved into a message-sending, revenge-gaining affair as a series of fights broke out in the final minute. The two teams were hit with 18 combined penalties in the final 20 minutes of action including 14 infractions and 78 penalty minutes in the final sixty seconds of play.
The Eagles finished the night going 1-for-4 on the power play and a perfect 2-for-2 on the penalty kill. Florida goaltender Ouellette suffered his first regulation loss of the postseason, allowing two goals on 25 shots. The Everblades ended the game 0-for-3 with the man advantage
The Kelly Cup Finals continue with Game Two on Sunday, May 27th at 7:05 pm Mountain / 9:05 pm Eastern at the Budweiser Events Center.
(Information from press releases from Colorado and Florida was used in compiling this report)
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