Blades Whip Wings (4-2)

The Everblades were back in town after a pretty successful road trip. There opponent last night was the Kalamazoo Wings. Before I go any further into this re-cap I have to post these pictures of their warm-up jerseys...

I couldn't believe my eyes when I walked in during the warm-ups and was immediately confronted by those monstrosities (they also had the golden arches on their helmets). Let me just say how much I appreciate whatever it is that keeps the advertisements on the Blades jerseys to a minimum. Because the K-Wings jerseys are horrid. Now that I feel better, back to the re-cap!

The Everblades had an amazing first period, scoring three of their four goals (game sheet here). A power play goal by Milan Gajic opened up the scoring five minutes into the game. Another power play goal, courtesy of Ryan Lang, arrived almost five minutes after the first. Matt Duffy followed at the 16:11 mark with the only Blades goal not scored on the power play. The K-Wings made a goaltending change after that goal. I was very impressed by the Blades, they were very aggressive, and had the K-Wings on their toes the entire period. The shots on goal at the end of the period was the best proof of that, with the Blades leading 18-6.

The K-Wings did their best to fight back during the second, but they just couldn't seem to find what they needed. Gajic scored his second goal of the night (I believe thats four games in a row of two goal game by the Blades players) on the power play once again. There wasn't much else during that period and the Blades left the ice ahead 4-0.

The third period saw the Blades get a little to comfortable with their lead. They seemed to pull back and relax a bit. That allowed the K-Wings to score two goals. The first ended the shut-out goalie Chris Beckford-Tseu had managed through two periods with his awesome play (he was the most intense I've ever seen him). The second was a short handed goal that I just happen to have a video of...

Although it was a major ugh moment, and it was sad to see it get by Becks when he had been playing so well, it wasn't enough to be too much of a threat to the Blades win. The K-Wings did try their hardest, even pulling their goalie in the last few minutes, but the Blades managed to hold the K-Wings off and win 4-2.

Except for the team backing off in third it was a great game. All the players seemed to be working together as one cohesive unit. It is a little sad that it took this long for the Blades players to figure out how to work as a team. Now that we're in the latter part of hockey season they have to make every game count. If they play like they did during the first period every period of every game they just might be able to pull something off.

The ECHL board of governors met yesterday as well. You can see the full report here. Basically, they approved the Chiefs move to Greenville, approved the Checkers move to the AHL, and extended Columbia's voluntary suspension while they continue to work on a new arena.

Finaly, some more player pictures...

(Dominic Osman)

(Benn Olson)

The Blades continue their series with the K-Wings Friday and Saturday. They will also be holding activities for pink-in-the-rink both days, with the jerseys and auction on Saturday. I would really appreciate any pictures you guys happen to take on Saturday, just e-mail them to me and I swear I'll love you forever!