ECHL Florida Everblades

Blades open 10th Anniversary season with 6-1 win

Published on October 19, 2007 under ECHL (ECHL)
Florida Everblades News Release


ESTERO, FL - The Florida Everblades rode three power play goals and a short-handed goal to a 6-1 victory over the Mississippi Sea Wolves on opening night at Germain Arena in front of a standing room only crowd of 7,462.

The Everblades spoiled the return of the Sea Wolves after a two-year hiatus by exploding for three second period goals, including two on the power play. Florida opened the game's scoring when new-comer Mathieu Melanson tallied his first of the season at 15:43 on assists from Derek Damon and J.D. Forrest.

The 'Blades carried the one-goal lead into the second period and quickly extended it to a 2-0 lead when Kyle McAllister scored his first professional goal just 2:14 into the frame on helpers from Jarret Lukin and Ernie Hartlieb. After the Sea Wolves trimmed the lead back to one on Lance Monych's first goal of the year at 4:15 of the period, Adam Taylor regained the Everblades two-goal lead at 7:39 on a nice feed from Damon from the right corner. Forrest notched the second assist.

Before the period ended, the Everblades tacked on their second power play goal of the period when rookie defenseman Brandon Roach launched a right point shot that found its way past Mississippi goaltender Morgan Cey with 10:36 remaining in the middle stanza. Frank MacDonald and Jon Lehun assisted Roach's first professional goal, and allowed the Everblades to carry a 4-1 lead into the third period.

In the third period the Everblades opened up a 5-1 lead when Melanson banged home his second goal of the night with the Everblades on the power play just 3:49 into the period. Brad Zancanaro and MacDonald collected the helpers. From there the Everblades played a strong defensive game to hold the Sea Wolves in check. Everblades goaltender Justin Peters did his job by turning away all seven shots he faced in the final period and then assisted on the Blades' final goal of the night by leading Zancanaro on a short-handed rush. Zancanaro then buried the shot with 21 seconds remaining in the game to seal the victory.

Peters played strong in the season debut by turning away 25 of 26 shots faced to open the year with a record of 1-0-0. Cey suffered the loss for the Sea Wolves after allowing the six goals on 42 Everblades shots to see his record open a 0-1-0 for the season.

On the power play, the Everblades converted finished strong going 3-for-8, while the Sea Wolves finished the night 0-for-4.

Experience the excitement of the Everblades 10th Anniversary season! The Everblades return to action on Saturday, October 20 when they host the Mississippi Sea Wolves at 7:30 p.m. from Germain Arena! 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.

Check out the Florida Everblades Statistics

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ECHL Stories from October 19, 2007


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