ECHL Florida Everblades

Blades gain point in standings but fall 4-3 in shootout to Gwinnett

March 18, 2007 - ECHL (ECHL)
Florida Everblades News Release


DULUTH, GA - The Florida Everblades (38-20-6) ended their three game road trip by gaining a point in the standings after falling 4-3 in a shootout to the Gwinnett Gladiators (38-19-7) on Sunday at the Arena at Gwinnett Center in front of a crowd of 5,134. A fiery first period of play saw the Everblades carry a 1-0 lead into the locker room. The lone first period goal came off the stick of Brad Zancanaro at 7:37 when Frank MacDonald's point shot rebounded off Dan Turple's pad and right to Zancanaro's stick. Jarret Lukin collected the second assist on Zacanaro's 15th goal of the season. Things got testy in the first period after Gwinnett's Chris Thompson ran into Everblades goaltender Craig Kowalski leading to a pushing and shoving match between the teams at the time, and as the period came to an end, including Thompson challenging the Everblades bench.

As the second period began, things settled down and the Everblades added to their lead with a power play goal midway through the second period. While enjoying their fourth power play of the game, Vince Bellissimo was found open in the left circle where he fired the puck into the net past a screened Turple for a 2-0 lead. Derek Damon and Lukin assisted on Bellissimo's 24th goal of the season.

Leading 2-0 entering the third period, the Everblades watched the Gladiators rip off three straight tallies in a span of 2:24 midway thought the frame. Jon Awe began the onslaught with his 23rd goal of the season with the team's skating 4-on-4 at 6:56. Jim Jackson then tied the game at two with his 12th goal of the year at 7:23 and Mike Vigilante gave Gwinnett their first lead at 9:20 by racing down the right wing an cutting to the front of the net where he slipped a shot past Everblades goaltender Craig Kowalski. The Everblades settled in a tied the game a few minutes later when Damon snuck a shot from the right side of the crease past Turple at 11:46 to tie the game at three. Frank MacDonald and Jon Lehun assisted on Damon's 18th of the season.

The game remained tied at three through regulation sending the contest to overtime. After neither team scored in the five-minute overtime period, the game moved to a shootout to determine the winner. In the shootout, each team scored three goals in the first five rounds, with Florida picking up goals in the first two rounds by Zancanaro and Adam Taylor and a fourth round goal by Damon. Gwinnett picked up goals in round two through four by Brad Schell, Chad Painchaud and Joel Stepp. Neither team converted in the sixth round and after Lukin's attempt in the seventh round for Florida clipped the right post, Vigilante netted the game winner for the Gladiators.

In net Kowalski picked up a tie by stopping 39 of 42 shots in regulation and overtime to see his record go to 24-11-4, while Turple increased his record to 5-1-0 vs. Florida by stopping 32 of 35 shots in regulation and overtime, which raised his overall record to 18-11-3.

On the power play, the Everblades finished the game 1-for-4, while the Gladiators closed out the game 0-for-6.

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ECHL Stories from March 18, 2007


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