WHEELING, WV – All season long, the Florida Everblades had the ability to turn on an offensive fireworks display seemingly at will. When the Wheeling Nailers held the Everblades to just three goals in game one of their best-of-seven first round playoff series, it looked like Wheeling had found the elusive silver bullet to
Wednesday night Florida proved that, to paraphrase Mark Twain, the reports of the Everblades offense’s death were greatly exaggerated.
Kevin Lynch and Brendan O’Donnell each posted two goals and an assist to lead Florida to a 6-3 win over Wheeling in front of an announced attendance of 1,536 at WesBanco Arena in Wheeling. The victory allowed the Everblades to take a 2-1 series lead heading into an all-important game four scheduled for Friday in Wheeling.
Florida’s special teams played a huge part in deciding the outcome as the Everblades netted three power play goals and added another while playing short handed. Florida’s penalty killers did their job as well, shutting out the Nailers on six man advantage opportunities.
Game three began in a defensive mode as both teams seemed willing to feel the other out after 18-plus hours of travel and a couple of days practice following game two in southwest Florida. In fact, the Nailers held a 4-2 advantage in shots on net through almost twelve minutes of the opening frame.
Wheeling found its way onto the scoreboard first at the 12:37 juncture of the period. It came when Paul Cianfrini sent what appeared to be a rather innocent shot from the point in on Everblades goalie Anthony Peters. The puck somehow squirted away from Peters just far enough for Jordan Kwas to poke a backhander into the net for his first goal of the series.
Just over a minute later, the Nailers took a penalty and Florid made them pay. Ethan Werek skated the puck into the Wheeling defensive zone and made a move around a defender to clear some space. As he did that, Danny New made a beeline toward Franky Palazzese in the Nailers net. Werek laid a perfect pass to New who went top corner with a shot to even the score at one.
A penalty to Wheeling’s James Melindy in the final half minute of the period carried over to the start of the second stanza. With less than twenty seconds left on the man advantage, Jon DiSalvatore fed the puck to O’Donnell who went up and over Palazzese for his first goal of the series at the 1:24 mark.
The Everblades used yet another power play opportunity to extend the lead less than five minutes O’Donnell’s tally when Chase Golightly set up Lynch for a one-time bomb from the left circle that beat Palazzese between the legs. At that point, Florida had been on the power play three times in the game and had three goals.
Lynch’s lamp-lighter was the end of the night for Palazzese as Wheeling head coach David Gove send Brian Foster out to relieve his starter. Palazzese finished the night with eight saves on eleven shots faced.
The Nailers were handed a golden opportunity to get back into the game when overlapping penalties to Werek and Corey Syvret gave Wheeling a two-man advantage for more than a minute. Not only did the Everblades kill off the the five-on-three, they added to their lead when Lynch stole the puck in the waning seconds of the five-on-four and scored his second consecutive goal to make it 4-1.
After dominating the shots on net count in the middle frame (14-6) and getting outscored by three, Wheeling came out hot to start the third. The Nailers drew within two at the 3:36 mark when Riley Brace redirected a shot by Mathew Maione from the point for his first goal of the playoffs.
The game started to open up offensively but Peters (36 saves) and Foster (12 saves in relief) held their nets past the midpoint of the period. O’Donnell netted his second of the game when he tipped home a shot by Justin Agosta to push the margin back to three at 5-2.
With just over five minutes left in regulation, Cody Wydo got a piece of a Brace shot up and over Peters to once again pull the Nailers within two. Wheeling began to turn up the heat again but Peters answered every shot with a save.
An ill-timed too many men on the ice penalty derailed Wheeling’s offense some in the closing minutes. Gove still found a way to pull Foster for another skater and it almost worked when Brace broke in alone but Peters denied the opportunity.
Gabriel Desjardins put the game on ice with an empty net goal from in front of his bench in the final minute.
The series will pick back up again Friday night with game five scheduled for Saturday also in Wheeling.
Contact the author at Don.money@prohockeynews.com
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