Everblades remain perfect, skate past Fuel

ESTERO, FL – Matt Berry finished with a goal and an assist, while rookie Joe Cox scored the go-ahead goal in the third period to lift the Florida Everblades (5-0-0-0) to a 3-1 victory over the Indy Fuel (1-2-1-0) Wednesday evening at Germain Arena.

The Fuel got on the board first with a power play goal at the midway point of the first period of play. Nick Bligh took the puck into the corner before sending it to Tommy Olczyk who was gliding into the slot before wristing a shot by Martin Ouellette’s blocker to make it a 1-0 game for Indy.

The second period started off in a bad way for the Fuel with goaltender Matt Tomkins going down with a leg injury 2:14 in. With Tomkins going down, Collin Delia would get the call to action, manning the pipes for the remainder of the period and eventually game.

The Everblades received a power play with 4:46 remaining in the period. Despite being unable to capitalize on the penalty, the Everblades scored just seconds after the penalty expired. Forward Berry found himself deep in the Fuel zone and he whipped the puck across the crease to Michael Kirkpatrick who was waiting on the doorstep to one-time it into the back of the net.

Florida took its first lead of the game 8:12 into the third period of play. Following some rash of shots that broke out in the Indy zone, Cox was able to put home a rebound from just outside the slot past Delia’s left pad to give the Everblades a 2-1 lead.

The Everblades continued with their third period shutdown defense not allowing the Fuel to get back in the game. Berry added an empty netter with 1:03 left in the period to close out the game with a score of 3-1.

Ouellette picked up his third win of the season making 26 saves, while Delia took the loss despite a solid relief outing, allowing two goals on 32 shots faced. Starting goaltender Matt Tomkins stopped all 11 shots face before exiting the game due to an injury.

Michael Kirkpatrick extended his five-game point streak to open up the season.

The two teams will meet again this Friday and Saturday at Germain Arena.

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