Blades Flush Royals 7-4
January 19, 2011 - ECHL (ECHL)
Florida Everblades News Release
ESTERO, FL - The Florida Everblades (24-18-2) rode a hat-trick by Alex Imbeault to their third straight win in a wild 7-4 contest over the Reading Royals (23-11-3) on Wednesday night at Germain Arena.
The scoring frenzy between the teams started with five combined goals in the first period. The teams traded scoring punches throughout the first 20 minutes with the Everblades opening the scoring at 7:26 when Matt Beca tallied the first of his two goals. Beca tallied his ninth goal of the year after taking a pass from Imbeault in the slot before wristing a shot past Royals net-minder Michael Hutchinson.
Reading quickly answered less than a minute later at 8:19 when Brett Gallant notched his first goal of the season with a quick one-time shot from the slot off a pass from Alain Goulet. The scoring blitz continued with Beca's second tally of the night at 10:57 on a great breakout that started with David Fischer feeding Francis Lemieux at center ice. Lemieux then fired a pass to Beca down the left side boards where he raced into the offensive zone before firing a shot from the left circle past Hutchinson.
Again Reading tied the score, this time just over a minute later at 12:03 when Devin Timberlake deflected a point shot from Jared Ross past Everblades goalie Bobby Goepfert.
Before the period ended Imbeault gave the Everblades the 3-2 lead with his 22nd goal of the season. The goal was the first of three power play markers on the night and came when Lemieux fired a pass from the bottom of the right circle to Imbeault in the left circle where his shot banked off Hutchinson and into the net at 13:17.
The back-and-forth scoring continued into the second period when the Royals tied the game 3:49 into the frame when Yannick Riendeau converted on a penalty shot after he was hooked down on a breakaway.
From that point however the Everblades took the lead for good when Mike McKenzie notched his 15th goal of the season by lifting a back-hand shot from the right post over the glove of Hutchinson while on the power play at 14:22.
Less than a minute later the Blades opened a two-goal advantage when Imbeault tucked home his second goal of the night after completing a 2-on-1 rush with Beca at 15:15 by slipping home a shot from the top of the crease and past a sliding Hutchinson.
In the third period Cedric McNicoll got in on the scoring fun tallying the team's third power play goal at the 5:42 mark with a slap shot from the right circle into the upper right corner of the net. Elgin Reid set up McNicoll's seventh goal of the season with a pass from the middle of the ice at the blue line.
The Royals made one last-ditch effort to engineer a come-back when Casey Haines picked up a power play goal from the top of the crease off a rebound from Goepfert at 14:41, but that was as close as they would get as Imbeault sealed the game with his second career hat-trick by scoring into the empty Reading net with 29 seconds left in regulation.
In goal Goepfert won his third straight to improve to 16-8-2 after stopping 32 of 36 shots while Hutchinson fell to 3-2-2 after allowing six goals on 26 shots.
The win improved the Everblades to 3-1-0 vs. Reading in the season series.
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.
The Everblades return to action on Friday, January 21 when they host the Reading Royals at 7:30 p.m. from Germain Arena. 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 - Alex Imbeault - FLA
2 - Matt Beca - FLA
3 - Francis Lemieux - FLA
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