ESTERO, Fla. – The Florida Everblades hosted division rivals Gwinnett Gladiators, for a pair of weekday games at Germain Arena earlier this week. Florida earned three of four possible points in the standings, with a win and an overtime loss. On Tuesday, Gwinnett defeated Florida 4-3 in overtime. Despite a very exciting night for a young Everblade player, Florida failed to pull out a win to celebrate his personal success. All-Star rookie forward, Brandon Buck, recorded his first professional hat trick, but it wasn’t enough for Florida to claim victory.
Brandon Buck
Gwinnett earned the first two goals of the game late in the first period beginning at 18:59 then followed by a second only twenty-six seconds later. The Gladiators went to the break ahead by a score of 2-0. The second period was the Brandon Buck show. Bucks began the hat trick succession with a power play goal at 9:35, followed by his second and third successive goals at 17:02 and 19:22. The goals brought Buck to thirteen goals on the season. It was a very exciting period of play for the Everblades fans as well as for Buck, as he earned the natural hat-trick in front of the home town crowd. When the hats were cleared from the ice,
Florida was leading 3-2. The Blades held onto the lead until the final minute of the game. With only 53-seconds left, Gwinnett’s Tim Miller managed to score against Chris Beckford-Tseu, at 19:07. Neither team could find the net in the few seconds left, sending the game into overtime with a score of 3-3. Gwinnett’s Captain, Adam Berti scored the game winning goal in overtime, when he found the back of
Florida’s net at 3:11. This was the first win over
Florida in their last five attempts. Danny Taylor took home the win, with 25 saves. Beckford-Tseu managed 30 saves in the loss. Then on Wednesday,
Florida was victorious in regulation time defeating Gwinnett 3-1. The Everblades came back with pay back on their minds from the previous evenings defeat. The first period ended in a scoreless tie with the Everblades outshooting the Gladiators 11-8.
Florida opened the scoring in the second period with a goal by Shea Guthrie at 13:35, assisted by last nights star, Brandon Buck.
Florida led at the second break 1-0. The third period saw a lot of action with Gwinnett tying the score about five minutes into the period. The score remained tied at 1-1 until late in the period.
Florida pummeled the Gladiators net trying to get the go ahead goal. With just over three minutes to go,
Florida’s Mathieu Roy sealed their win with a goal. Late in the period, Gwinnett pulled their goalie for the extra skater, but to no avail, as the Blades Ryan Lang added an empty-netter insurance goal.
Florida took home the two points with the 3-1 game winner.
Florida faces the Stingrays in
South Carolina in games on Friday and Saturday nights Other Blades news, two former Florida Goaltenders, Anton Khudobin and Justin Peters have been added to the long list of former ECHL players to make their NHL débuts this month. Khudobin was called up as the emergency goaltender and helped the Minnesota Wild defeat the Edmonton Oilers in a 4-2 match, stopping nine shots in about ten minutes of play. Former Blades Goaltender Peters helped the Hurricanes in a 3-1 win over the islanders with 34 saves in his debut over the past weekend. Right-wing Brady Calla was returned from the Rochester Americans and Forward Dominic Osman joined the Blades in a trade that sent Justin Morrison to the Walleye. Contact the writer at:
sharon.weatherhead@prohockeynews.com Contact the photographer at:
rob.huelsman@prohockeynews.com Related
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