Re-Cap: Everblades vs. Walleye (1/29/11)

After a rough loss last night the Blades rolled into Toledo looking for a much needed road win. Although the Walleye have spent most of their sophomore year struggling to find what they had last year, they have been turning things around lately.



The question was, who would want it more?

Starting line: Graham, Paquet, Ibeault, Beca, Lemieux, Goepfert.

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The Blades opened things up right when Francis Lemieux scored his 21st of the year at the 2:51 mark. The Blades kept up the pressure for most of the period.



They were rewarded when they were able to (finally) convert on the power play around the nine minute mark, with Alex Imbeault's 25th of the season. The Blades were able to keep the pressure up, kill two penalties, and pretty much dominate the entire period. When the buzzer sounded at the end of the period, the Blades led 2-0.



The SOG really showed their dominance in the period. They had a season leading 21 shots on net, to the Walleyes 10.

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The Blades kept the pressure up in the opening minutes of the second. They were rewarded 4 minutes in when Imbeault scored his second goal of the game on the first official shot of the period to make it 3-0. That goal seemed to wake up the Walleye who began to respond with a lot of physical play.



It didn't matter though, the Blades responded to that with another goal from Drew Larman to make it 4-0. A few minutes later, the Blades scored once again on the power play with a tip in from Mike McKenzie to make it 5-0. Unfortunately, Toledo finally woke up they ruined goalie Bobby Goepfert's shut-out to make it 5-1, they made it 5-2 secnds later. Luckily, the period ended before the Walleye could get any more goals, and the score at the end of the period remained 5-2.

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You had to hope going into the third that the Blades realized that Toledo was ready to pounce on any opportunity they were given. Too bad the Blades didn't realize it right away.



The Walleye took advantage and forward Tyler Doig netted the power play goal, and a natural hat-trick, to make it 5-3. Thankfully, that woke the Blades up. Imbeault netted yet another goal, and a hat-trick of his own to give the Blades a three goal cushion about a minute after that. You could tell how much that goal took the standing room only Toledo crowd out of the game. What sounded like a raucous atmosphere over the radio broadcast quickly turned to little to no noise. Lemieux added the final nail in the coffin two minutes after Imbeault's goal with one of his own to make it 7-3.



There was no other scoring after that, but there was plenty of action, including a between the benches fight between one of the Walleye and Mathieu Roy. In the end, the Blades won 7-3. The game sheet is here. All photos are from the 11/17 and 11/19 games against the Walleye.

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(Still one of the coolest pictures I've ever taken)

Some thoughts:
- The Blades listed to me! They signed goalie Shane Owen to a try-out contract.
- Imbeault was one of the best pick-up of the off season, the others? Lemieux and Raymond.
- Thanks to Greenville losing in Reading the Blades' win allows them to tie for division lead. Unfortunately, the Royals now move into first in the conference with that win.
- Goepfert had another solid night, timely saves, and he came up big when the Blades needed him most.
- It would be nice to see him get a little more support though, they have a bad habit of forgetting to help him out for big chunks of time.
- I really can't wait until we get a legitimate enforcer (Hendrikx or Fukala I don't care who) back on the ice. It's getting a little absurd.

The Blades have one more game in Toledo Sunday afternoon at 4:00. A win could give them the lead over the Road Warriors and maybe put them in a position to challenge the Royals. I doubt the Walleye will roll over easily. It's going to be good.