Blades pound Jackals 6-2
The Florida Everblades returned to home ice Wednesday night, winning in dominant fashion over the Elmira Jackals 6-2 at Germain Arena.
Florida’s dominance started so early, many fans hadn’t taken their seats yet, when Adam Brace tallied his seventh goal of the season just 12 seconds into the opening period of play.
Four minutes later, the Everblades went up 2-0 after Mitch Wahl rifled a slap shot past the Jackals goalie, from the top of the far side faceoff circle.
“The last three games we’ve gotten off to a fast start,” said Blades coach Greg Poss. “After the last two outings, this was our most complete game so far. We had only 18 turnovers, which is a record for us and we see that if we play the game the right way and we manage the puck correctly we will have a lot of offensive chances at the same time.”
Elmira showed some life in the final moments of the first period, beating starting Blades goaltender Allen York (17 saves) on only their third shot of the frame.
The Blades dominated the second period from start to finish, scoring three times, icing the game.
The highlight of the scores came off the stick of John McGinnis. While waiting near the blue line, behind the Jackals defense, Alex Lavoie found McGinnis, who skated uncontested to the Jackals net for the first of his two goals in the period, both assisted by Burt and Lavoie.
Mitch Wahl was other contributor in the second frame, with his second goal of the game.
Elmira added a meaningless power play goal in the third period, but an unassisted goal by Alex Aleardi less than a minute later slammed the door on any hopes the Jackals had of a comeback.
The win marks three straight for the Everblades (15-4), who continue their five-game homestand leading into the Christmas break on Friday when the Indy Fuel visit Germain Arena.