Everblades top Gladiators 6-4
It was a triumphant return to Germain Arena Friday night for the Florida Everblades, who defeated the Gwinnett Gladiators 6-4 in a back and forth scoring fest.
The scoring barrage between long time division rivals started fast furious with the teams scoring five times in the opening period.
Florida scored the first goal before most fans had even reached their seats, as Chris Kushneriuk scored his third goal of the season just three seconds after the opening drop of the puck.
Twelve minutes later Evan Bloodoff’s tip-in power-play goal off a shot by Kushneriuk put Florida up 2-0 on Gwinnett, but a penalty on Everblades net minder Allen York (26 saves), led to a Gladiators power-play goal 1:19 later.
The goal fired up Gwinnett, which tied the game with 1:16 left befpre intermission, but Adam Brace’s fourth goal of the year with less than 18 seconds to play in the first period sent the Blades into the first intermission up 3-2.
After a chippy second period featuring three fights and two new all-out brawls, Florida found themselves down 4-3, and needing to mount a comeback heading into the final period of play.
That comeback began six minutes into the final period as Mike Cornell’s shot was pushed home by Jeff Costello.
Florida pressured the Gladiators goalie and defense from that point of the third period on. The pressure eventually led to the game-winning goal by Mitch Wahl with less than five minutes to play.
“I thought we had a really good start to the game, taking a two-goal lead,” said Blades Coach Greg Poss. “The first period was good. Our penalty kill was not up to par which allowed them to come into the game, but to the guys’ credit we really came back defensively in the third period.”
Florida’s defense held the Gladiators to just five shots in the final period.
An empty net goal in the final minute by John McInnis finished off the scoring for the night.
Florida (10-2-0-1) and Gwinnett (5-7-0-0) face off again Saturday night at Germain Arena.