ESTERO, FLA – Saturday night, the Florida Everblades faced losing the first two games of a post-season series at home for the second time during the 2016-17 ECHL Kelly Cup Playoffs. Levko Koper made sure the Everblades did not send their fans home disappointed.
Koper netted a hat trick and goalie Alex Nedeljkovic made 21 saves for his first win of the playoffs as Florida downed the South Carolina Stingrays 5-2 in front of an announced crowd of 3,599 at Germain Arena. With the win, the Everblades pulled even in the best-of-seven South division finals at one game each.
Game three is set for Monday night in North Charleston, South Carolina.
Following a game one that did not see much in the way of animosity between the two long-time rivals, Saturday’s contest started off with a bang as Florida’s Mitchell Heard dropped the gloves with South Carolina’s Domenic Monardo right off the opening face-off. The skirmish also saw the Everblades’ Dalton Smith tangle with the Stingrays’ Andrew Cherniwchan and Rob Flick with Smith drawing a double minor for roughing while both South Carolina combatants picking up a minor penalty.
After killing off the instigator penalty that Heard received, the Everblades went on a scoring binge, popping three goals past Stingrays goalie Parker Milner before the first period was six minutes old. The first came right after the successful penalty kill when Matt Hatch circled the South Carolina net and while falling to his knees jammed the puck into the back of the net for his first goal of the playoffs.
Hatch’s goal was followed seconds later by a penalty to the Stingrays’ Marcus Perrier that gave the host Everblades a power play. Florida took little time to take advantage as just twelve seconds after the infraction, Koper got a hold of the puck at the top of the crease and banged it past Milner for his second post-season tally.
Having scored on their first two shots of the contest, the Everblades made it three for three at the 5:45 mark on an odd-man rush. Using teammate Brant Harris as a decoy, Koper froze Milner and laced a shot just under the crossbar for his second goal of the night and a 3-1 Florida lead.
South Carolina began to find its offense late in the frame and finally broke through on Nedeljkovic thanks to its first power play of the night. Utilizing Everblades defenseman Jake Baker as a screen, Cherniwchan put a shot on net that the Florida netminder never saw until it was in the back of the cage for his second goal of the post-season.
The Stingrays opened the second period with a hard push and pulled within one at the 6:57 mark. Once again it was Cherniwchan doing the honors, this time with a hard wrist shot from the top of the right face-off circle for his second of the night.
Just shy of two minutes later, Milner and his teammates faced a key section of the game when three successive penalties, two of them overlapping, put the Everblades on the man advantage for a little over four successive minutes including 1:44 of five-on-three time. The Stingrays tightened up and thanks to big saves by Milner on Michael Kirkpatrick and Brendan O’Donnell, they were able to survive and keep it a one-goal game heading into the second intermission.
Remembering how South Carolina had come back to force overtime and win on Friday night, Florida needed a kill shot and got it early in the third period. Thanks to a holding the stick penalty to the Stingrays’ Cody Corbett just 1:15 into the frame, the Everblades extended their lead to 4-2 when O’Donnell fired a shot from the bottom of the right circle that took a bounce in front and found its way into the net for O’Donnell’s eighth score of the playoffs.
The Stingrays got an opportunity to get back closer when overlapping penalties to Matt Berry and Heard created a two-man advantage seven minutes into the period but Nedeljkovic and the Everblades stood their ground, keeping the visitors from scoring.
Koper, who joined the Everblades roster just prior to game four of the divisional semifinals against Orlando, capped his big night off with an empty net tally with 1:14 left on the clock.
Seconds after Koper’s hat trick goal, tempers flared as Heard and Perrier went toe-to-toe while Flick and Smith renewed pleasantries in a partial line brawl. Then with less than a minute to go, Cherniwchan and Florida’s Stephen MacAulay drew misconduct penalties as the game officials tried to keep the peace. Cooler heads prevailed and all that was left was to count down the final seconds until the game ended.
Notes: Florida’s Kirkpatrick and Berry each picked up two assists in the game… The teams combined for 15 power plays in the contest with South Carolina going 1-for-7 while Florida finished 2-for-8… The next three games will be played in North Charleston on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday at the North Charleston Coliseum. Puck drops all three night are at 7:05 p.m.
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