Blades grab 3-1 series lead with 4-2 win over Gladiators
Published on April 17, 2009 under ECHL (ECHL)
Florida Everblades News Release
DULUTH, GA - The Florida Everblades put themselves within a victory of winning their first round best-of-seven series by collecting a 4-2 win over the Gwinnett Gladiators on Friday night at The Arena at Gwinnett Center. The win gives Florida a 3-games-to-1 series lead and a chance to wrap up the series in Game 5 on Sunday.
As they wanted, the Everblades came out flying in the opening 20 minutes of the game and their effort paid off allowing them to carry a 2-0 lead into the first intermission. The Everblades set the tone early when Steve McJannet notched his first playoff goal at 3:23. The play began with McJannet taking a nice pass at the offensive blue line from Doug O'Brien before letting a shot go from the left circle that slid under the pads of Gladiators net-minder Joe Fallon.
That lead held until late in the period when Mark Lee tallied a power play goal with 2:17 remaining. In almost a carbon copy of his power play goal last night in Game 3, Lee let a slap shot fly from the middle of the ice at the blue line that sailed past Fallon with the help of a screen by Kevin Baker. Yannick Tifu and Jacob Micflikier assisted on Lee's third goal of the playoffs.
As seen throughout the first three games of this series, the Gladiators didn't go away quietly as they tallied two quick second period goals in a span of 41 seconds to tie the game and allow the teams to hit the second intermission deadlocked at 2-2.
The first of the Gwinnett goals came on the power play at 8:36 when Dan Sullivan's quick snap-shot from the bottom of the right circle that sailed over the glove of David Leggio. A mere 41 seconds later Pat Bateman took an outlet pass in the neutral zone before skating around the Everblades defense and cutting across the top of the crease and slipping a shot under Leggio at 9:17.
The third period saw the Everblades continue to dominate the puck possession as they wore down the Gladiators out-shooting them 15-4 in the period. Early in the frame the Everblades had a number of quality looks to the net, but couldn't find a way to break the 2-2 tie.
Late in the period however on the only power play that was whistled in the third period, the Everblades cashed in to take the lead for good. Great work by the forward line of Andrew Sweetland, Ernie Hartlieb and Ross Carlson led to the tally as the trio worked the puck around the offensive zone.
The finishing touch came after Sweetland tied up his man in the right corner allowing Hartlieb to dig the puck loose. After a quick look to the slot, Hartlieb found Carlson with a perfect pass that he slapped past Fallon and into the net with 6:55 remaining in the third period.
Over the remaining time the Everblades did a solid job of holding Gwinnett at bay and limiting them to only one shot in the final 90 seconds. The Everblades then sealed the win when Carlson found the empty Gwinnett goal with 2.4 seconds remaining in regulation. Sweetland and O'Brien assisted on Carlson's third goal of the playoffs.
In goal Leggio stood tall, stopping 21 of 23 shots to improve to 3-1 in the post-season. Fallon suffered the loss allowing three goals on 42 shots, which dropped his record to 1-2 in the playoffs.
On the power play, the Everblades finished the night 2-of-5, while the Gladiators closed out the game 1-of-5.
BEWARE OF THE BITE! Action You Can Sink Your Teeth Into! Individual tickets to Kelly Cup Playoff game "C" are on sale now! Visit the Germain Arena Box Office M-F from 10-6 to purchase tickets, or order online at www.ticketmaster.com. Visit www.floridaeverblades.com and www.germainarena.com or call 239-948-PUCK for more information on group ticket packages, pricing and upcoming Germain Arena events.
The Everblades return to action on Sunday, April 19 when they travel Gwinnett to take on the Gladiators at 4:05 p.m. in Game 5 of the South Division semi-finals from the Arena at Gwinnett Center.
3 Stars:
1 - Ross Carlson - FLA
2 - David Leggio - FLA
3 - Joe Fallon - GWI
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