Miles' hat-trick sinks Blades 5-2
February 21, 2009 - ECHL (ECHL)
Florida Everblades News Release
CHARLOTTE, NC - The Charlotte Checkers (28-20-4) notched their fourth straight win over the Florida Everblades (35-15-3) after coming up with a 5-2 win on Saturday night at Time Warner Cable Arena in front of a boisterous crowd of 12,388. Jeff Miles chipped in offensively with a hat-trick and goaltender Jeff Jakaitis stonewalled the Everblades for the second time this week to help the Checkers improve to 6-0-2 in their last eight games.
The Checkers took advantage of a couple Everblades miscues to score a pair of first period goals and carry a 2-0 lead into the first intermission. The first of the two goals came early in the frame when Jeff Miles intercepted a cross ice pass at the blue line at the tail end of an Everblades power play before racing in on goaltender Anton Khudobin alone and squeezing a shot between his pads at 4:54 for the 1-0 lead.
The Checkers then opened a 2-0 lead at 15:22 when Miles again took advantage of a turnover, this time in the neutral zone, before then bringing the puck into the left circle where he wristed a shot between the left arm and body of Khudobin and into the net for his 15th goal of the season.
The Everblades battled their way back to tie the game in the second period, but the Checkers notched a late goal to take a 3-2 lead into the second intermission. The first of the Everblade goals came early in the period off the stick of Kevin Baker just 2:10 into the frame. The play developed in the left wing corner where Milan Gajic worked the puck loose to Mathieu Roy who found Baker at the top of the crease where he slipped a shot between the pads of Jakaitis.
The game was tied up by the Everblades late in the second period when Ross Carlson forced a turnover by the Checkers who were on the power play. Carlson then raced onto the loose puck and broke in 1-on-1 with Jakaitis before putting a nice deke and lifting a shot over the Charlotte net-minder's glove at 18:09.
The unassisted short-handed goal was the 13th of the year for the Everblades and the second by Carlson.
The jubilation of the come-back by was short-lived by the Everblades however as the Checkers again took advantage of an Everblades turnover as Chris Capraro intercepted a cross ice pass in the high slot. His shot was stopped by Khudobin, but Peter James Corsi pounced on the rebound and slid the puck into the net with just 4.6 seconds remaining in the period.
Despite their best efforts, including firing 22 shots on goal in the third period, the Everblades couldn't find a way to find the equalizing goal on Jakaitis. The Checkers closed out the scoring with a pair of empty net goals in the final two minutes. Michael Busto notched the first of the empty-netters with his third goal of the year at 18:27, then a minute later Miles finished off the hat-trick by finding the empty Florida cage.
Khudobin saw his record fall to 18-9-1 after allowing three goals on 21 shots while Jakaitis collected another win over the Everblades to improve to 6-3-0 vs. Florida and 18-12-3 overall after turning away 45 of 47 shots.
On the power play, the Everblades finished the night 0-of-6, while Checkers closed out the game 0-of-7.
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 Sunday, February 22 when they take on the Gwinnett Gladiators at 4:00 p.m. from The Arena at Gwinnett Center in Duluth, GA. The Everblades' next home game is Wednesday, February 25 when they host the Johnstown Chiefs at 7:30 p.m.
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