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Florida Everblades

Everblades Brawl Their Way to 6-2 Win Over Gladiators

December 22, 2010 - ECHL (ECHL)
Florida Everblades News Release


ESTERO, FL - In a game that saw two South Division rivals combine for 153 penalty minutes, the Florida Everblades (19-12-1) picked up their second straight win over the Gwinnett Gladiators (12-13-5) by a score of 6-2 in a on Wednesday night at Germain Arena.

A mid second period brawl between the teams that featured the goaltenders duking it out, summed up the frustrations of the Gladiators who fell to 0-9-1 in their last 10 games.

Before the powder keg exploded the Everblades grabbed a 2-0 lead after the first 20 minutes. Although Gwinnett out-shot the Everblades 16-7 in the open period, Florida opened the scoring on a penalty shot by Mitch Fadden. The league's leading scorer converted the penalty shot after he was tripped up on a breakaway by firing quick wrist shot over the glove of Gladiators starting goalie Billy Sauer at 8:08.

Just over a minute later the Everblades added to their lead on a hard-working shift by the line of Mike McKenzie, Cedric McNicoll and Matt Beca. The goal began with McNicoll digging the puck loose along the left side boards and feeding Beca in the left circle. Beca then found McKenzie alone in the right circle with a good pass that he fired home for his 11th goal at 9:26 of the period.

Gwinnett came out strong in the second period and eventually cut the Everblades lead in half at 6:08 when Andy Brandt tallied his seventh goal of the season after beating goaltender Bobby Goepfert on a 2-on-1 rush with a shot from the right circle.

Florida answered back with their third goal when Bobby Raymond found Jared Staal with an outlet pass that sprung him on a breakaway. Staal made a quick deke to the back-hand and slipped the puck past Sauer at 10:49 for a 3-1 Florida lead.

Less than a minute later the Gladiators responded with their second goal of the night when Tim Miller banked home a shot from the right post at 11:45.

Gwinnett's momentum lasted just 22 seconds before McKenzie put the Blades back ahead by two goals after taking a nice pass from McNicoll at 12:07. McNicoll skated the puck into the zone down the right boards then flipped a pass from the right circle to McKenzie in the slot where he swatted home his 12th goal of the season to open a 4-2 lead.

At that point the Gladiators' frustration boiled over and at 12:39 of the period the teams engaged in a six-on-six brawl that featured both starting goalies fighting at center ice. When the dust settled, the Gladiators suffered the worse for the wear finding themselves short-handed 5-on-3 for two minutes.

The Everblades took just 10 seconds on the ensuring power play to open a 5-2 lead after Alex Imbeault added to his league leading goal total with his 16th of the season at 12:49. Mitch Fadden set Imbeault up with a perfect pass from the right circle to the high slot where Imbeault fired a one-timer past goalie Chris Carrozzi who came on for Sauer after the brawl. Ethan Graham also picked up an assist on Imbeault's league leading ninth power play goal.

The Everblades carried the 5-2 lead into the third period and back-up goalie Jaroslav Janus held the lead, turning away all 8 shots he faced in the third period. Florida tacked on their final goal in the final second of the game when Staal tipped home a pass from Beca on a 2-on-1 rush for his second tally of the night and fifth goal of the season.

With the win, the Everblades improved to 3-2-0 vs. Gwinnett this season and climbed to 10-5-0 at home.

In goal Goepfert (11-6-1) picked up the win stopping 22 of 24 shots before his game-misconduct in the second period fight. Janus closed out the game stopping all 11 shots he faced. For the Gladiators Sauer took the loss and fell to 5-6-2 after allowing four goals on 13 shots. Carrozzi finished off the game stopping 17 of 19 shots.

On the power play, the Everblades finished the game 1-of-7 while Gwinnett closed out the night 0-of-5.

Individual tickets to all 2010-11 Florida Everblades home games are on sale now! Tickets are available at the TIB Bank Box Office Monday - Friday from 10:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m. and on Saturday from 10:00 a.m. - 2 p.m. Fans can also purchase tickets through TicketMaster by logging onto www.ticketmaster.com or calling 800-745-3000. Visit www.floridaeverblades.com and www.germainarena.com for more information on ticket packages, pricing and upcoming Germain Arena events.

Bud Light 3 Stars:

1 - Mike McKenzie - FLA

2 - Bobby Goepfert - FLA

3 - Mitch Fadden - FLA

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