Re-Cap: Everblades vs. Royals (1/21/11)

 After Wednesday's domination there was no doubt the Royals wouldn't just lie back and take another beating. The question was, would the Blades ease up? Or would they come back even stronger?

The Blades had a lot to gain from a win. Walking away with two points would tie the Blades with the League leading Greenville  Road Warriors.

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The Royals came out with all guns blazing in the first. They put on major pressure and saw that pay off 2:29 into the game when the slipped one past goalie Bobby Goepfert. They continued to dominate throughout the rest of the period and once again saw their hard work pay off with a power play goal on a Matheiu Roy boarding penalty. The Blades had no real answer for the Royals play. They saw themselves trailing 2-0 when they left the ice.

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The best thing about the second period was seeing the Blades slowly wake up. They slowly started to pressure the Royals more and more. Eventually, it paid of when, in the closing minutes, Ross Carlson scored his seventh goal of the year to make it a 2-1 game.

Unfortunately, the ref decided that was a good time to make two B.S. calls on the Everblades. This included a call  on Lawson for, I kid you not, throwing the stick, and then called Lemieux, who was already in the box, for a game misconduct. He was obviously not happy with that call, and he let the Refs know how he felt. They of course decided to tack on an abuse of the officials during the intermission. Of course the Royals were able to convert on the 5 on 3 that was dropped in their laps to make it 3-1. They weren't able to convert on the 5 on 4 in the closing minutes so the score remained 3-1 at the end of the period.

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After being on the receiving end of some unfair treatment, the Everblades responded the best way any hockey team could. They put on major pressure and kept the Royals on their toes. David Fischer scored his second of the year at 7:38 and a little over seven minutes later Carlson scored yet again to tie it up 3-3. That seemed to wake the Royals up, but it was a little too late. Amazingly, the Blades put a total of 22 shots on net in the third, the Royals only managed 8. When the final buzzer sounded it was still tied up 3-3. That meant only one thing... over time!

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After such a great comeback you could tell the momentum had shifted in the Everblades favor. The Royals tried their hardest, but looked a little tired and sluggish. Both teams had some great chances, but perhaps the best was a wrap-around attempt from Cedric McNicoll (at least I think it was him, I could be wrong). With neither team able to score it meant it was shoot-out time. I do have video of this, and hopefully, I'll have it up sometime Saturday afternoon.


The Blades elected to shoot first.

• Alex Imbeault- No goal
• Yannick Riendeau- No goal
• Cedric McNicoll- No goal
• Chris Blight- No goal
• Matt Beca- No goal
• Ben Gordon- No goal
• Tony Mosey- GOAL!
• Eric Castonguay- No goal
• Mike McKenzie- No goal
• Casey Haines- DENIED!

Thanks to the newest Everblade, the team was able to cap off an awesome comeback, and win a game they really deserved to win.

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Some Thought:
- The officiating in the ECHL continues to be terrible, at some point something will have to be done. There was no reason Matt Beca should have been speared in the head while the Ref watched.

- Lemieux second game misconduct was for abuse of the officials. He may be getting a call from the league tomorrow. There is the real possibility that he can be suspended for a game or two.

- Good news time! Greenville lost their game tonight, which evens the Blades up with them for 1st place in the division.

- Mosey's turning out to be a nice signing, he's been producing pretty well so far.

- Goepfert had some early struggles, but seemed to shut it all down in the third, OT, and the shoot-out.

- I don't recall seeing much shot-blocking. Not a good bad habit for the Blades to be picking up right now.

- The Blades have strung together 4 straight wins. Nice to see them bounce back from their rough patch.

The Blades have one more game against the Royals Saturday night. It's going to be interesting to see who comes out on top.