ESTERO, FLA – The Florida Everblades combined five different scorers on Wednesday night as they cruised past the Utah Grizzlies in their lone meeting of the 2021-22 season.
The Everblades began the game on a sour note, allowing a shorthanded goal from Utah’s Charle-Edouard D’Astous 3:52 into the action. D’Astous swatted in his rebound after an initial shot in front of the net from Ben Tardif. Blake Winiecki tied the game at 11:21 of the first period for his 100th goal in a Everblades uniform. Another Florida milestone was achieved shortly after when Alex Aleardi (12:34) converted on a pass through center ice to notch his 400th career point. The Everblades carried their 2-1 lead through the remainder of the period.
Avery Peterson continued his red-hot month with the Everblades, finding the twine for his third time in as many games after just 89 seconds of the middle stanza. Aleardi picked up an assist on the play as the Everblades extended their advantage at 3-1. The teams traded power-play goals between Utah’s Trey Bradley (17:02) and Joe Pendenza of the Everblades (18:08) to bolster the score to 4-2 Florida at the second intermission.
With 10:45 to spare in regulation, Stephen Desrocher’s blast from the near circle made it a 5-2 game. This marked his first pro goal and first in his Everblades tenure was assisted by John McCarron and Jake Jaremko. That was the final highlight of the game as the Everblades concluded the evening with their three-goal lead. The prosperous night improved the Everblades record to 21-11-3-3 while Utah’s setback placed them at 25-13-1-1. Goaltender Cam Johnson stopped 24 of 26 shots for his seventh win of the season.
The Everblades will conclude the week with a three-game road trip beginning on Friday night against the Greenville Swamp Rabbits. Puck drop is scheduled for 7:05 pm and the game will be covered on FloHockey.TV as well as ESPN Southwest Florida on 770 AM, 98.1 FM, 104.3 FM and online at https://espnswfl.com.
The next home game for the Blades will take place on Saturday, February 5th when the Orlando Solar Bears come to Estero for Beach Night courtesy of Molly Moo’s Ice Cream at Hertz Arena.
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