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Florida Everblades

Blades mount comeback with three third period goals

March 18, 2009 - ECHL (ECHL)
Florida Everblades News Release


ESTERO, FL - The Florida Everblades (42-17-5) clinched home-ice advantage for the first round of the playoffs after battling from behind three times before collecting a 5-3 win over the Charlotte Checkers (32-25-6) on Wednesday night in front of a crowd of 5,791.

The Everblades stung the Checkers with four power play goals to snap Charlotte's five game winning streak in the season series. Kevin Baker turned in two more goals to run his league leading total to 52 and rookie goaltender Kyle Gajewski won his second start with the Everblades in as many games.

The Checkers, who were playing with only 13 of the allowed 16 skaters because of injuries three times led in the game, including notching the first goal of the night. Ryan Muphy put Charlotte up 1-0 at 12:58 of the first period with a power play goal after jamming the puck between Gajewski's pads at the top of the crease.

The lead held until the early stages of the second period when Baker tallied the first of his two goals with a power play marker at 5:46. The play was created by a tremendous end-to-end rush by Andrew Sweetland, who split a pair of Checker penalty killers at the blue line before slipping a pass to a wide open Baker at the left side of the crease.

Charlotte however regained the lead at 2-1 after capitalizing on an Everblades line-change miscue. Marty Guerin scooped up a loose puck at center ice as the Everblades got caught changing players, and moved into the offensive zone where he found Michel Leveille alone for a short-handed goal at 13:27.

On the same power play, the Everblades once again tied the contest. At 13:55 Baker tallied his second of the night after his shot from the bottom of the left circle rang off the left goal post and off Checkers net-minder Parker Van Buskirk before being knocked across the goal line by a Checker defender. Peter Metcalf and Milan Gajic recorded the assists.

With the game even at two entering the third period, Charlotte grabbed the lead back just 22 seconds into the frame when rookie Matt Schepke notched his first professional goal by slapping home a rebound at the left side of the crease.

From there the Everblades took advantage of the short Checkers bench and ripped off the game's next three goals. The first, which tied the game at three came at 4:33 of the period when Sweetland launched a one-time slap shot from the right circle past a stretching Van Buskirk. The power play goal came off assists by Gajic and Mark Lee.

At 10:13 Colin Nicholson tallied the eventual game-winner after wristing a quick shot from the slot over the glove of Van Buskirk for his 13th goal of the season. The even strength goal came off assists by Patrick Bordeleau and Ernie Hartlieb.

Mathieu Roy capped off the scoring with the team's fourth power play goal of the night at 13:10 by hammering home the puck in a goal mouth scramble at the right post. Hartlieb started the play by unsuccessfully stuffing the puck in at the left post before it pinballled across to Roy who stoked home his 21st goal of the season.

In net Gajewski improved his overall record to 10-11-2 by turning away 20 of 23 shots. Van Buskirk, who was making his first professional start and took the loss allowing the five goals on 43 shots.

On the power play, the Everblades finished the night 4-of-9, while Checkers closed out the game 1-of-8.

BEWARE OF THE BITE! Action You Can Sink Your Teeth Into! Individual tickets to all Everblades home games 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 Friday, March 20 when they travel to Charlotte to take on the Checkers at 7:00 p.m. from Time Warner Cable Arena. The Everblades' next home game is on Saturday, March 28 when they host the Charlotte Checkers at 7:30 p.m. from Germain Arena.

3 Stars: 1 - Colin Nicholson - FLA 2 - Kevin Baker - FLA 3 - Andrew Sweetland - FLA

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