LOVELAND, CO – By reputation, Florida Everblades forward Mitchell Heard is considered to be an enforcer and agitator type of player – one who will both irritate and punish opponents on the ice. There is, however, another side to the long-time minor leaguer – a side that keeps him on the radar of the NHL’s Carolina Hurricanes and their AHL affiliate in Charlotte.
Sunday night at the Budweiser Event Center, Heard showed off his “other” skills at just the right time.
Heard went on a solo mission late in game two of the ECHL’s Kelly Cup final series, creating a turnover and scoring the game-winning tally with 36 seconds left to give the Everblades a 4-3 win in front of an announced crowd of 5,289. The victory evened the best-of-seven series at one win each as the teams now head to southwest Florida for the next three games.
Game three is scheduled for Wednesday night at 7:30 p.m. at Germain Arena in Estero.
With less than a minute left, Heard’s forechecking skills helped him to force the Eagles to cough up the puck in their defensive end. Gaining control, Heard stickhandled past a pair of stunned defenders before roofing a backhander over Colorado goalie Joe Cannata for the goal that decided the contest, one that featured a lot of special teams and none of the expected fallout after Friday night’s wild finish.
The Everblades knew that coming out of Loveland with a split was important and they came out firing at Cannata, pumping six of the first seven shots in the opening period on the Colorado net. The tenor of the game then changed at the 15:23 mark of the frame when Florida’s Stephen Lorentz went into the penalty box, followed quickly by a scrum that sent three more players off – two of them being Everblades – that gave the host Eagles a five-on-three power play.
Colorado made quick work of their advantage but not in the way everyone expected. Off the faceoff, the puck whacked off the boards and bounced in the direction of Jake Marto. He swatted it at the net and just as Florida goalie Martin Ouellette went to snatch it, the disc took a bad hop, eluding the netminder’s glove and arm and settling into the cage for Marto’s fifth goal of the post season.
Down one as the second frame began, the Everblades found their own special teams success twice in the first 7:11 of the stanza. At the 2:01 mark, Sam Warning put on a speed skating exhibition, blowing past Colorado defenders and lacing a shot past Cannata for his fifth of the playoffs. Five minutes later, Florida again was a man up and this time Heard fed a pass back to the blueline where defenseman Matt Mackenzie blasted a shot into the back of the net for his second post-season tally and the Everblades first lead of the series.
Penalties on the visitors again reared their ugly heads late in the period, again putting the Eagles on a two-man advantage. A rapid fire set of chances led to Michael Joly getting a second rebound that was blocked by Florida’s Gus Young. The carom went to J.C. Beaudin who banged it home past Ouellette for his ninth playoff goal to even the score at 2-2.
Colorado went back in front 5:24 into the third on the game’s first even strength score. Matt Grabowsky rushed the puck up-ice into the Florida end. Reading the play, Marto jumped up as a trailer on the play and was wide open for a pass. Grabowsky got Marto the puck and his shot from the slot rang off the inside of the post and in for his second of the game.
Needing a response, the Everblades got it when some offensive zone pressure led to a shot from the point by Zack Kamrass. Perfectly positioned in front of Cannata, Stephen MacAulay got his stick blade on the shot and redirected it in for his second of the playoffs and a 3-3 deadlock.
The teams both went into lockdown mode defensively with Cannata (27 saves) and Ouellette (22 saves) each coming up big when they had to. It all led to the final minute when the veteran Heard saved his best work of the night for the right moment.
Notes: Final shots in the game favored Florida by a count of 31-25… After Friday’s contest that saw nearly 100 penalty minutes assessed – most of them in the final minute – Sunday’s officials whistled a combined 17 minor penalties for 34 minutes. Each team scored twice on the power play with the Everblades having six opportunities to five for the Eagles… Florida’s Michael Kirkpatrick, who left Friday’s game after a huge hit from Colorado’s Gabriel Verpaelst, did not dressfor game two and is listed as day-to-day according to the Everblades staff… Game four of the series is set for Friday, June 1st at 7:30 p.m. at Germain Arena with game five scheduled for Saturday at 7 p.m. also at Germain Arena. Should a game six be needed, it will be played back in Colorado on Wednesday, June 6th.
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