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ECHL Florida Everblades

Blades Ride Four Power Play Goals to 6 -3 Win

January 2, 2009 - ECHL (ECHL)
Florida Everblades News Release


ESTERO, FL - The Florida Everblades (20-8-2) snapped their season-high three game losing skid thanks in part to four power play goals as they ended the Charlotte Checkers (16-13-2) five-game win streak with a 6-3 victory on Friday night at Germain Arena.

The division rivals who were playing their third straight match-up against each other combined for 92 penalty minutes and 22 power plays. The Everblades took better advantage of their power play chances tallying four times to Charlotte's one.

After suffering back-to-back losses to the Checkers the Everblades came out flying in the first period jumping to a 3-0 lead by the intermission. Colin Nicholson opened the scoring with his sixth goal of the season at 7:54 of the period after newcomer Noah Babin's shot from the right point was stopped by Charlotte net-minder Jeff Jakaitis. Nicholson chased down the loose puck at the top of the crease and slid it past a sprawling Jakaitis. Mark Lee notched the second assist on the tally.

The Everblades then struck for a pair of quick power play goals scoring on both ends of a 5-on-3 man advantage. Kevin Baker notched the first of the two firing quick shot from the bottom of the left circle after taking a nice pass from Peter Metcalf. Baker's 24th goal of the year came at 15:12 and was also assisted on by Ryan Lang.

Just 22 seconds after Baker's goal, Ross Carlson tallied Florida's second power play goal of the night by chipping a nice centering pass from Matt Auffrey past Jakaitis at 15:34. After Babin fed the puck to Auffrey up the left wing side, he carried the puck into the left circle before sliding the pass across to set up Carlson's eighth goal of the year.

The second period was a different story however as Charlotte charged back scoring twice to trim the Everblades lead to one after two periods. The Checkers got on the board at 4:51 on Michel Leveille's fourth goal of the season. Charlotte then climbed back to within one with a 5-on-3 power play goal of their own. At 6:55 Ethan Graham let a slap shot from the top of the right circle fly that sailed past Everblades goaltender David Leggio.

The Florida penalty killing unit held strong through the rest of the second period holding off four more Charlotte power plays allowing the Everblades to take the one goal lead into the second intermission.

With the teams trading scoring chances over the first eight minutes of the third period, the Everblades finally found some breathing room at 8:34 when Lang tipped home his 10th goal of the year on another nice setup by Auffrey. In almost identical fashion to Carlson's goal, Auffrey set the hard-charging Lang up with a perfect pass from the left circle into the slot. Metcalf collected his second assist on the goal that gave the Everblades a 4-2 lead.

A turning point in the game came at 10:42 when Charlotte's Peter-James Corsi was called for a five-minute boarding major after hitting Everblades defenseman Brad Zanon from behind. On the ensuing power play the Everblades scored twice to open a 6-2 lead.

The first of the goals came just four seconds into the penalty after Carlson won the left circle face-off back to Ernie Hartlieb at the left point. Hartlieb quickly slid a pass to the middle of the ice to Lee who ripped off a one-timer that skipped past Jakaitis at 10:46.

The Everblades collected their fourth power play marker of the night at 15:23 as Steve McJannet stepped out from behind the Charlotte net and with second effort stuffed the puck between the pads of the Charlotte goaltender for his first goal of the season. Danick Bouchard and Mathieu Roy added their names to the scoresheet with the assists.

The Checkers closed out the scoring with 1:55 remaining in the contest when Corsi chased down a loose puck in the slot and lifted over the out-stretched stick of Leggio for his fourth goal of the year.

With frustrations mounting, tempers boiled over as the teams engaged in a line brawl with 11 seconds remaining. Metcalf and Zanon each got fighting majorsl as did Corsi for Charlotte in a brawl that included both goaltenders joining the fray.

In goal Leggio got back in the win column by stopping 31 of 34 shots to improve his record to 9-3-1. Jakaitis suffered his first loss against the Everblades this season after allowing the six goals on 44 shots.

On the power play, the Everblades finished the night 4-of-9, while Charlotte closed out the game 1-of-13.

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