ESTERO, FL – T’was the week before Christmas, the home crowd was sparse, But the Blades took the series with the Nailers in their house………….
The Florida Everblades hosted the Wheeling Nailers for the first time this week. Wednesday night was the first of a three game set. The Blades were still short-handed and played with only five d-men. Due to frequent call-ups, Florida has lost nine forwards also. The recent addition of right wing Shea Guthrie was a plus. He had four points this weekend during the series.
WEDNESDAY – December 16th – FLORIDA-5 / WHEELING-2 – The tempo of the first period was a back-and-forth struggle between the two teams, each trying to size up the other. Blade’s goalie, Chris Beckford-Tseu, made the save of the game with an impressive kick save, denying Wheeling from getting on the board. However, the Nailers did score first. Former Everblades, Cleve Kinley, scored a power-play goal at 9:14 of the first to open the scoring. Wheeling led 1-0 at the end of the period.
The second period was all Florida as they pummeled Brad Thiessen in net and scored three times in less than fifteen minutes. Ross Carlson scored first for Florida at 4:29. Goals were added by A.J. Thelen at 8:44 and Colin Nicholson at 19:21. Florida entered the second break ahead 3-1.
Florida once again dominated the period. The Nailers did add a goal to cut the Blades lead to just one when Casey Pierro-Zabotel scored just 3:27 into the third. Florida’s Brandon Buck took advantage of a power-play opportunity and extended the lead to 4-3 at 7:23. Ross Carlson added his second goal of the night with an empty-netter at 19:49. The struggling Florida Everblades added a home win, besting the Nailers by a score of 5-2.
GOALTENDERS: Win: Chris Beckford-Tseu (stopped 30 of 32 SOG’s) Loss: Brad Thiessen (stopped 37 of 41 SOG’s)
POWER PLAY: Florida 1/6 Wheeling 1/5
FRIDAY – December 18th – WHEELING-5 / FLORIDA-3 – The Nailers silenced the Florida crowd early with a slick power-play goal by Aaron Clarke at 2:02, on just the third shot of the game . After that, the Blade’s kicked into action and added two goals of their own. The first was a power-play by newcomer Shea Guthrie at 5:46 that just trickled over the net behind Theissen. The other was an even-strength goal by Matt Duffy at 9:51. The rest of the period was quiet, as the respective nets remained empty of pucks. Florida led at the end of the first 2-1.
Wheeling took control for the rest of the game, beginning at just 1:29 of the second period. A power-play goal by Kevin Schmidt turned the momentum in the Nailers direction. It was a long shot that surprised the Blades and Morrison. Blair Yaworski added a tally at 8:04 of the period. The Nailers were given a number of quality chances to score, but Morrison was able to keep them at bay. Wheeling led into the break by a score of 4-1.
Morrison looked frustrated as he did not seem to have any depth in his defensive teammates tonight. He took control of an aberrant shot and skated way out of his net to made a great save. The first half of the third was quiet again until Thomas Beauregard scored at 12:31. Florida’s Ryan Lang made a strong drive to the net and got the puck past Thiessen. Florida had improved the score to 4-2 at 13:49. The Blades pulled Mike Morrison out of the net for the extra skater but got beat by Thomas Beauregard again as he scored his second goal of the night, this time an empty netter, at 19:03. Wheeling won the contest by a score of 5-3.
GOALTENDERS: Win: Brad Theissen (stopped 36 of 39 SOG’s) Loss: Mike Morrison (stopped 26 of 30 SOG’s)
POWER PLAY: Florida 1/5 Wheeling 2/5
SATURDAY – December 19th – FLORIDA-5 / WHEELING-1 – Tonight the game was all Florida. Steve McJannet took control of the game scoring just 11 seconds in and the Blades never looked back. Florida took a commanding lead during the first period. Also scoring were Mathieu Roy (6:47) and Ryan Lang 15:54. Lang had a great effort tonight totaling three points (1 goal, 2 assists). Florida led 3-0 at the end of the first period.
The Blades extended their lead in the second when Ross Carlson got a good bounce off the skate of Wheeling’s Cleve Kinley. His goal at 5:14 made the game 4-0 in favor of Florida. Quite a nice turnaround after last evening’s game. Florida looked much more focused and in control. Wheeling took advantage of a 5-on-3 power play with a goal by T.J. Fox at 9:53 of the second, posting their only tally of the night. The scoring ended with Roy’s second goal of the evening at 13:36.
The third period was scoreless for both teams, but Florida kept control even though they were impressively outshot by the Nailers. Florida wins tonight by a score of 5-1 and wins the series 2 games to 1.
GOALTENDERS: Win: Barry Brust (stopped 42 of 43 SOG’s) Loss: Michael-Lee Teslak (stopped 18 of 23 SOG’s)
POWER PLAY: Florida 0/3 Wheeling 1/6E
NOTES: (Transfers) – A.J Thelen (Rochester Americans – AHL), Elgin Reid (Albany River Rats-AHL), Chris Beckford-Tseu (Rochester Americans-AHL).
NEXT GAME: The Florida Everblades are now on a holiday break until December 26th. Their next game will be in Charlotte when they will play division rivals, the Charlotte Checkers, the day after Christmas.
Contact sharon.weatherhead@prohockeynews.com
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