Everblades even series with 4-1 win
The Florida Everblades needed a win, and responded with a winning performance.
Florida downed the Wheeling Nailers 4-1 Saturday at Germain Arena, evening the first-round best-of-seven ECHL Conference Semifinal playoff series at 1-1.
“These guys want to win badly and it showed in their effort tonight,” Everblades coach Greg Poss said.
The series now shifts to Wheeling, W.Va., for the next three games April 20, 22, and 23. Games 6 and 7, if needed, would be back at Germain Arena on April 25 and 27.
“Now it’s a best-of-five series,” Poss said. “We’re going to Wheeling and they’re a real good home team. It’ll be a challenge for everybody.”
Wheeling, the lower seed, already had the road win it needs with a 6-3 victory Friday.
“Our main goal was to come down here and get that one win, and obviously we wanted to get two wins after the first game,” Nailers coach David Gove said. “We’ve got control of home ice now and going back to Wheeling in good shape.”
Everblades goalie Anthony Peters, pulled in Game 1 after giving up four goals on 10 shots, got the win in Game 2 with 20 saves on 21 shots.
“They had some odd-man rushes and he made some big saves for us,” Poss said.
Meanwhile, Wheeling goalie Frankie Palazzese was peppered with 39 shots, giving up four goals. After an o-fer in the series opener, Florida’s power play cashed in on its first opportunity Saturday. The Blades broke out on top with 16:02 to play in the second period. Ryan Martindale put a rebound into an almost empty net for the power-play score. Shots by Danny New and Matt Willows had pulled Palazzese to one side of the net, giving Martindale a big target for the putback.
Willows followed at 13:11 with a beautiful goal set up on a pass dropped back into the slot by Ethan Werek. Rookie Chase Golightly also picked up an assist as Florida led 2-0.
“(Werek) made a great pass on that second goal,” Poss said.
A scramble in front of Palazzese resulted in a goal by Jon DiSalvatore for a 3-0 Florida lead with 9:05 left in the second. Greg Gibson and Werek got the assists.
Wheeling put its power play to good use for a goal by Anton Zlobin with 4:40 to play in the second. Brett Stern and Shane Bakker assisted.
Florida got a 5-on-3 opportunity with 13:59 to play. John McCarron, the second Nailer nailed for a penalty, wound up getting tossed from the game. He was given a game misconduct for making an obscene gesture.
A scrum in front of the Wheeling net resulted in a goal that was waived off, and a scrap between most of the players on the ice. Golightly and Wheeling’s Riley Brace picked up minor penalties.
The Everblades got the capper with 1:09 to play on captain Matt Marquardt’s power-play goal. Martindale and New assisted.
“We knew that tonight they would come out and throw the whole kitchen sink at us,” Gove said. “They’ve got a veteran group over there, a team with offensive ability. We knew to expect their best tonight. We did a good job weathering the storm in the first period. I like where we were early on. In the second they came at us really hard again. We didn’t have an answer.”
Florida dominated time of possession early in the game, with Wheeling getting some opportunities as the first period wore on. Neither team dented the scoreboard, but the physical play had the linesmen busy separating players throughout the opening 20 minutes.
“I really like that first period how we came out and kept putting the pressure on them,” Poss said. “We didn’t let up until we scored some goals.”
There were plenty of occupants of both penalty boxes during the final two periods, however. Wheeling had 46 penalty minutes on 12 infractions including McCarron’s game misconduct, while Florida had eight penalties for 19 minutes.
The evening was capped by New and Wheeling’s Danny Fick brawling with less than a second to play.