Re-Cap: Everblades vs. Royals (1/19/11)

After knocking out the Everblades in the playoffs last year on our ice, the Royals have become a little bit disliked around the arena. The fact that they're second in the conference standings, and one of the few teams in the East with more points makes stealing some wins from them important.

They've been strong over the last ten games, going 6-1-2-1. The Everblades, on the other hand,  have been struggling through a slump that's led to a 3-6-0-1 record in their last ten.  It's not all doom and gloom though, the Blades have been showing signs of improvement. Add to that the return of Cedric McNicoll from Charlotte and Elging Reid from the IR and there are glimmers of hope.

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Both teams started out strong in the first. They traded chances until the 7:39 mark, when Matt Beca was able to put the Blades on the board first to give them the 1-0 lead. Less than a minute later the royals responded to tie it up. The Blades didn't give up though, and Beca scored yet another goal to once again give the Blades the 2-1 lead.Unfortunately, two minutes later the Royals answered back to make it a 2-2 tie. A minute after that Alex Imbeault was able to convert on a power play to give the Blades a one goal lead for the third time that game. Thankfully, no one else scored, and the score at the end of the period was 3-2.

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The second period did not start off very well for the Everblades. They had to begin by finishing off a penalty from the first. Then, a Royals player earned a penalty shot on a hooking call. He was able to get it past Goepfert and make it a 3-3 game. That goal seemed to shake the blades and they scrambled for the next few minutes of play. Thankfully, the hockey gods were on the Blades side and they didn't let the Royals take the lead. Eventually, they woke up, and Mike McKenzie was able to convert on the power play to make it 4-3. Imbeault made it 5-3 about a minute later. At the close of the period the Blades held a comfortable 5-3 lead on the Royals.

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With a whole 20 minutes of hockey left to go, there was no question the Royals would work their hardest to get back. They traded many chances, but neither team was able to take advantage until about six minutes in when Cedric McNicoll was able to convert on the power play to make it 6-3. That power play was thanks to a boarding call as well as several roughing calls made on the Royals. Both teams went back to trading chances until the Royals were able to convert on a power play that was courtesy of a Phil Paquet hook. In the closing minutes the Royals pulled their goalie, during another power play no less, but weren't able to use the advantage in their favor. In fact, it worked against them. Mathieu Roy was able to feed a pass to Alex Imbeault and he was able to fire it into the empty net to earn a hat-trick. The final score when the buzzer sounded was 7-4. The game sheet is here.

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Some Thoughts:
- That was a big win. With Greenville's struggles lately, the Blades can take the top spot in the division and conference with two more wins (and two Greenville losses).

- When someone gets a hat-trick you're supposed to throw your hats! Geez people it's a semi-rare event!

- Matt Beca and Alex Imbeault are going to be in the Reading goalies nightmares tonight. He could not stop them!

- 3 for 6 on the power play! Good to see the Blades get back that aspect of their game, especially against a team prone to stupid penalties.

- It was obvious the Royals were frustrated. They took some stupid roughing penalties and their goalie was chopping at anything that went near his crease.

- Except for the few minutes after the penalty shot the Blades played pretty well.

- Now, I'm the biggest Geppy homer you'll ever meet, but I noticed Bobby Goepfert was not as solid as he usually is, he seemed to struggle at certain points. Hopefully, it was just a bad night.

- It would be really nice if we didn't give up goals right after we score. It's hard to hold onto a lead that way.