ECHL Florida Everblades

Blades home win streak at eight after 4-1 win

March 11, 2008 - ECHL (ECHL)
Florida Everblades News Release


ESTERO, FL -The Florida Everblades (35-20-7) added to their home winning streak as they swept the Mississippi Sea Wolves (24-36-3) in a three-game home stand at Germain Arena Tuesday night in front of a crowd of 5,186. The Blades seized a 4-1 win over the Sea Wolves, accumulating their eighth straight win at home.

The Sea Wolves claimed the game's first goal to get off to a quick start when Ryan Menei scored his 19th goal of the season by snapping the puck past Everblades goalie David Shantz 3:31 into the first period. The Everblades however quickly responded 12 seconds later when leading goal scorer Mathieu Melanson hammered his 27th goal of the year into the net from the top of the crease after a nice centering feed from Adam Taylor. David Cornacchia earned the second assist on the tying goal.

The heated, penalty-plagued first period resulted in four unproductive power plays between the teams and included a fight between Mississippi's Mike Hartwick and Florida's Ryan Van Buskirk. When the dust settled, the first period came to a halt with a 1-1 tie.

The steady stream of players to the penalty boxes continued in the second period and when Mississippi's Jason Tejchma caught two penalties at 8:18 - two minutes for hooking and two minutes for unsportsmanlike conduct - the Everblades cashed in after Preston Callander hammered the puck into the net from between the face-off circles during the first portion the double-minor power play at 9:01, allowing the Everblades to take the lead 2-1.

After a five-minute major penalty charged to the Everblades' David Cornacchia for boarding late in the second period, the Blades battled against their disadvantage and burned through the power play with rock-solid penalty killing and goaltending of Shantz, limiting the Sea Wolves to just three shots during the major power play.

With the Everblades holding a 2-1 lead entering the final period, penalties and power plays again dominated. Without much flow in the period, the Everblades eventually broke through to increase their lead with a pair of late goals.

The Everblades took advantage of their eighth power play of the night when Callander boosted his second goal of the night into the net past Mississippi goalie Ryan Munce. Adam Taylor began the play with a centering pass to Derek Damon, whose shot was stopped by Munce allowing Callander to jam home the rebound for his 16th goal of the season at 15:29.

At 17:47 during 4-on-4 action, the Everblades sealed the win on a nice give-and-go between Ernie Hartlieb and Steve Czech. The play started when Brad Zancanaro chipped the puck out of the zone where Czech out-raced the defenseman to slide the puck to Hartlieb. Hartlieb then gained the zone on the right side, before feeding a pass back to Czech who drove it into the net from the left side of the goal, tallying his 4th goal of the year.

The Everblades continued to hold strong as they garnered their 35th win of the year and their 22nd on home ice. In goal, Shantz improved to 6-0-1 in his last seven games and 9-3-2 overall after turning away 24 of 25 shots. Munce dropped his third straight game and fell to 17-15-0 overall after allowing the four goals on 33 shots.

On the power play, the Everblades closed out the night 2-for-10, while the Sea Wolves finished the contest 0-for-9.

Experience the excitement of the Everblades 10th Anniversary season! The Everblades hit the road and return to action on Friday, March 14 in Columbia to take on the Inferno. Individual tickets to all Everblades home games are on sale now! Stop by the Germain Arena box office to reserve your seat for all the exciting action! Visit www.floridaeverblades.com and www.germainarena.com for more information on ticket packages, pricing and upcoming Germain Arena events.

Stars: 1) Preston Callander - FLA 2) Derek Damon - FLA 3) Adam Taylor - FLA

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