ECHL Florida Everblades

Blades pick up a point in wild affair with Cincinnati

Published on January 8, 2011 under ECHL (ECHL)
Florida Everblades News Release


ESTERO, FL - The Florida Everblades (21-16-2) earned a tie in the standings after falling 6-5 in a shootout, capping off a wild back-and-forth game with the Cincinnati Cyclones (14-13-7) on Saturday night at Germain Arena.

In a game that featured the Everblades battling back from twice being down two goals, and the teams combining for 80 penalty minutes, the Cyclones in the end collected three wins over the Everblades during the week.

The game started well for the Everblades with Alex Imbeault returning to the lineup and scoring the first of his two goals just 1:28 into the contest with a quick back-hand shot that sailed over the blocker of Cincinnati goalie Marc Cheverie and under the cross bar. Francis Lemieux and Mathieu Roy collected the assists on Imbeault's 18th goal of the year.

From that point on however Cincinnati tallied the game's next three goals to open a 3-1 lead midway through the second period. T.J. Fast got Cincinnati on the board at 5:12 of the first period with the first of their three power play goals on a shot from the bottom of the right circle over the glove of Everblades net-minder Bobby Goepfert.

Matt Pierce then collected and unassisted goal at 16:58 of the first period, then Brian O'Hanley finished off the trio of goals for the Cyclones at 7:08 of the second period.

The Everblades cut the Cincinnati lead to one with a late second period power play goal. Imbeault, from the left boards, found Bobby Raymond breaking through the right circle with a perfect pass with 22 seconds remaining in the frame. The goal was Raymond's second of the season and David Fischer added an assist as well.

Prior to the tally, the game turned physical with both teams getting into several post-whistle scrums and a total of 42 penalty minutes in the final 10 minutes of the period.

Once the game entered the third period, the physical play took a back seat as the two teams traded scoring punches combining for five goals. Cincinnati notched the first goal of the third period just 32 seconds into the period from Pierce off a right circle face-off win.

From there the Everblades began their come-back, tallying the game's next two goals separated by one minute. The first came off the stick of Lemieux at 6:20 with a good wrist shot from the high slot off a pass from Imbeault. Evgeny Timkin began the play in the neutral zone and collected the secondary assist on Lemieux's 17th goal of the year.

Exactly one minute later while on the power play Imbeault tallied his second goal of the night and team-leading 19th of the season. The play developed off a scrum at the front of the net. After a saves by Cheverie on Fischer and Lemieux, the puck was hacked free by Roy to Imbeault at the left side of the crease. Imbeault's first shot rang off the post, but the puck came right back to him and he stoked home his ECHL leading 11th power play goal.

With the game tied at four, the Cyclones collected their third power play goal of the night with five minutes remaining in regulation. Sam D'Augustino collected a rebound off a Goepfert save at the top of the crease, and poked it under the sprawling net-minder.

The Everblades had one more goal in them and late in regulation Raymond notched his second goal of the night with a hard slap shot from the blue line just as their fifth power play was ending. Ross Carlson and Drew Larman set up the play for the assists and Raymond's hard shot found its way through traffic and into the net with 1:03 remaining in regulation to tie the score at five.

In overtime, although neither team scored, the Everblades penalty killers came up big killing off a 5-on-3 opportunity for Cincinnati early in the five-minute period.

In the shootout the team matched each other with three goals through the first five rounds. Once in single round elimination in round six, Cheverie stopped Fischer's attempt and O'Hanley's wrist shot found its way in just inside the left post for the winner.

In goal Goepfert picked up a tie after allowing the five goals on 47 shots in regulation and overtime to bring his record to 13-8-2. Cheverie picked up the win to improve his record to 12-7-4 after stopping 25 of 30 shots in regulation and overtime.

On the power play, the Everblades closed out the game 2-of-5 while Cincinnati closed out the night 3-of-10.

Individual tickets to all 2010-11 Florida Everblades home games are on sale now! Tickets are available at the TIB Bank Box Office Monday - Friday from 10:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m. and on Saturday from 10:00 a.m. - 2 p.m. Fans can also purchase tickets through TicketMaster by logging onto www.ticketmaster.com or calling 800-745-3000.

The Everblades return to action on Tuesday, January 11 when they travel to Gwinnett to take on the Gladiators at 7:05 p.m. from the Arena at Gwinnett Center. 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



ECHL Stories from January 8, 2011


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