ECHL Florida Everblades

Blades win streak at 8 after 4-1 win over Gwinnett

January 17, 2009 - ECHL (ECHL)
Florida Everblades News Release


DULUTH, GA - The Florida Everblades (27-8-2) extended their winning streak to eight after a hard-fought 4-1 win over the Gwinnett Gladiators (15-17-4) on Saturday night in front of a crowd of 9,234 at the Arena at Gwinnett Center. The win improved Florida's record to 6-1-0 vs. Gwinnett this season.

A wild and physical first period that featured a pair of fights, saw the Everblades jump to a two-goal lead when the dust settled. On Gwinnett's "Teddy Bear Toss" night the bears flew pre-maturely after Pat Bateman hit the goal post just 1:04 in. After the delay to clean the ice, the physicality began with both teams throwing the body at will that also led to fights between Steve McJannet and Dan Sullivan early in the period and Brad Zanon taking on Chris Cava midway through the frame.

Offensively the Everblades tallied first at 10:33 when Kevin Baker ripped home his 30th goal of the season with a big slap shot from the right circle that beat Gwinnett goaltender Kevin Regan low on the stick side. The milestone goal for the Everblades captain was assisted by Mark Lee who worked the puck ahead to him in the neutral zone.

The Everblades extended their lead to 2-0 at 15:23 on Doug O'Brien's third goal of the season. With Ross Carlson carrying the puck through the neutral zone and into the offensive zone, he weaved himself to the slot where the puck was poked off his stick by a Gladiator defender. O'Brien trailing the play, skated on to the loose puck and fired home a quick shot inside the left post. Lee added his second assist of the game on the play as well.

After a scoreless second period, that saw the physical play continue as the teams again dropped the gloves for another two fights, the Gladiators came with a surge of pressure to open the third period. The Everblades fought off the pressure, but Gwinnett finally found the back of the net 10:34 into the frame with a power play goal. J.C. Sawyer's slap shot from the middle of the ice at the blue line was tipped past goaltender Anton Khudobin by Scott Marchesi to cut Florida's lead to 2-1.

The key moment in the game came in late in the third period with the Gladiators on their ninth power play of the night when Sawyer's shot from the blue line was blocked by Mathieu Roy, who then raced on to the loose puck in the neutral zone before breaking in on Regan and firing a shot between his pads and into the net for his ninth goal of the year at 15:02. The short-handed tally was Roy's second of the year and the team's ninth.

Ryan Lang sealed the win for the Everblades at 18:12 after catching the Gladiators in a line change, scooping up a loose puck at center ice and skating in untouched before wristing a shot low on the stick side of Regan for his 12th goal of the year.

Khudobin notched his third straight win by turning away 27 shots which improved his record to 14-5-1. Regan suffered the loss in his ECHL debut by allowing the four goals on 23 shots.

On the power play, the Everblades finished the night 0-of-7, while Gladiators closed out the game 1-of-9.

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ECHL Stories from January 17, 2009


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