The Florida Everblades and Kansas City Mavericks matched up in Game 3 of the Kelly Cup Finals in Estero on Wednesday Night. Coming into Wednesday Night, the series had shifted to Florida, but despite the Everblades having home ice for three of the final five games, Kansas City has been great on the road, winning 29 games away from Cable Dahmer Arena during the regular season and winning eight of nine games during the Kelly Cup Playoffs. Kansas City would open up the scoring as Marc-Olivier Duquette would feed Jacob Hayhurst on a break-away, as the 27-year-old forward would beat Cam Johnson to give the Mavericks a 1-0 just over six minutes into the game. Florida would respond at the 12:06 mark as Josh Ho-Sang would pull off a nice shake-and-bake move before feeding Logan Lambdin in front as Lambdin netted his fifth of the Kelly Cup Playoffs. Florida’s lead wouldn’t last long as David Cotton would skate nearly the length of the ice before taking a shot that gave the Mavericks a 2-1 lead and Cotton would score again 2:44 seconds later as Cole Coskey would feed Cotton on a two-on-one as the Mavericks held a 3-1 lead after 20 minutes of play.
“It just means the world, I just try to do what I can to help this team whether it’s scoring goal or blocking shots I just wanna help this team win”
Oliver Chau on his Game 3 hat-trick
In the second period, it was all Everblades. They controlled the momentum for the entire period and were rewarded for it at the 10:24 mark as Bobo Carpenter fed Mark Senden in front to put the Blades within one goal. Despite not being able to tie the game before the end of the second, the Everblades outshot the Mavericks 19-4 in the middle frame. Florida would continue to build off the momentum they got in the second as Joe Pendenza fed Chau, who was left alone in front and would make no mistake in finding the back of the net as the Everblades had tied the game up at three. Logan Lambdin would give the Everblades the lead on a shot that just got past the glove of Jack LaFontaine, and just 54 seconds later, it would be Chau who netted his second of the game to give the Everblades a two-goal lead with less than ten minutes to go in the third. Kansas City would pull LaFontaine with a little over two minutes to go, and it would be the Ontario native who would hit the net to complete his first professional hat-trick with all three goals coming in the third period as the Everblades would score five unanswered goals and outshot the Mavericks 31-7 in the final two periods as Florida would go to win 6-4 and take a 2-1 series lead going into Friday Night.
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