ECHL Florida Everblades

Blades get physical, thump Gladiators 4-1

January 24, 2009 - ECHL (ECHL)
Florida Everblades News Release


ESTERO, FL - The Florida Everblades (29-9-2) got back in the win column a night after losing to the Gwinnett Gladiators (17-18-4) by knocking off the same Gwinnett club 4-1 on Saturday night at Germain Arena. Goaltender David Leggio ran his career-high winning streak to seven by stopping 26 of 27 shots.

Unlike the night before when the South Division rivals skated to a lethargic first period, the Everblades jumped out to a 2-0 lead by the end of the first period. Mark Lee opened the scoring with his seventh goal of the season at 11:53 with the teams skating a four-on-four. The scoring play began with Ernie Hartlieb winning a right side face-off cleanly back to Lee, who skated out to the high slot before letting a slap shot fly that tipped off a Gladiator defender and into the net.

Peter Metcalf extended the Everblades' lead to two with a power play marker with just under four minutes remaining in the period. The play developed with Lee feeding the puck to the right wing corner where Ryan Lang forced the puck to Metcalf at the right point. The penalty killers sagged back giving Metcalf a chance to walk into the right circle where his quick snap shot found its way past Gwinnett net-minder Joe Fallon at 16:04.

In the second period the Everblades added to their lead at 6:10 when Ryan McGinnis fed a long pass from his own zone up ice to Ross Carlson, who took the pass in stride at the offensive blue line and broke in alone on Fallon. Carlson sent the near capacity crowd of 6,904 leaping to their feet by zinging a wrist shot over Fallon's glove and into the upper right corner of the net for his 10th goal of the season.

The Gladiators managed to battle their way back to within a pair of goals on a power play goal by Andy Brandt at 13:28. Brandt picked up a loose puck at the left side of the crease after it was poked off the stick of Dirk Southern. With Leggio moving with Southern, Brandt poked the puck across the goal line for his fourth goal of the year.

As the game progressed into the third period the Everblades continued to bring the physical play with Partick Bordeleau lay thundering body check after thundering body check on the Gladiators. Goal scoring wise, the contest remained 3-1, but the Everblades clamped down defensively holding Gwinnett without a shot over the first 10 minutes, before finding an insurance goal from their captain.

Kevin Baker tallied his 32nd goal of the season with 3:08 left in regulation after a nice one-on-one play against Gwinnett defender Josh Engle. Baker worked side-to-side to get free before letting a wrist shot from the left circle go that slid through the pads of Fallon. Lang and Aaron Brocklehurst tallied the assists.

The physical play showed itself throughout the contest with the teams combining for three fights, with one coming in each period helping the teams combine for 80 penalty minutes.

Leggio improved to 15-3-1 and 2-0-0 vs. Gwinnett, while Fallon fell to 11-6-1 overall and 0-2-0 vs. the Everblades after allowing the four goals on 42 shots.

On the power play, the Everblades finished the night 1-of-6, while Gladiators closed out the game 6-of-7.

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ECHL Stories from January 24, 2009


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