Coming into Saturday Night, the Florida Everblades would have a chance to clinch their third straight Kelly Cup Championship on home ice in front of their fans at Hertz Arena and make ECHL History. The Mavericks, with their season on the line, had a very solid opening period and would finally get rewarded as Max Andreev fed David Cotton in front for his third goal of the Kelly Cup Finals and nine of the Kelly Cup Playoffs with less than a minute remaining in the opening frame. One of the strong points for the Everblades has been their ability to score early in the period, and in the second, it would be Bobo Carpenter who would get a breakaway and beat Jack LaFontaine just 1:09 into the middle frame to tie the game up at one. Kansas City would have an answer for the Everblades as they responded with a goal from Max Andreev at the 8:18 mark of the period, and then Nolan Walker would add a PP goal as the Mavericks were sitting in the driver’s seat heading into the third period with hopes of bringing the series back to the Cable Dahmer Arena.
With their backs against the walls, the Everblades would absolutely own the third period, but LaFontaine would make two big saves on a Florida odd-man rush to keep the two-goal lead intact. The Everblades cut the lead to one as Bobo Carpenter fed Mark Senden on a short-handed opportunity to make it a one-goal game, and then with 1:05 remaining in the game, it would be Senden who would get his second of the night to send the game into OT as the Everblades outshot the Mavericks 18-3 in the final 20 minutes of regulation.
As the game headed to OT it was Matt Wedman who scored to give The Florida Everblades the Game 5 victory; clinching the Kelly Cup and three-peat for the Everblades.
Congratulations to the Florida Everblades on the third straight Kelly Cup Championship.
Photos and Interviews coming this evening…
