'Blades Sweep ECHL Weekly Award Honors

ESTERO, FL – The Florida Everblades and the ECHL announced Tuesday that forward Geoff Walker has been named the Sher-Wood Hockey ECHL Player of the Week, while goaltender Andy Iles has been named the CCM ECHL Goaltender of the Week.

Walker, 26, posted six points (4g, 2a) and a +4 rating to help lead the Everblades to a 3-0-0 record last week   Highlighting the week for Walker was a hat trick in a 3-2 victory over Reading on Friday.

The Charlottetown, Prince   Edward Island native tallied nine points (6g-3a) in six games with Florida this season and added eight points (6g-2a) in 43 games with Syracuse of the American Hockey League. Under an NHL contract with TampaBay, Walker has 80 points (34g-46a) in 100 career ECHL games with Florida and Ontario and 116 points (45g-71a) in 269 career AHL games with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, Lake Erie and Syracuse.

On behalf of Geoff Walker a case of pucks will be donated to a Florida youth hockey organization by Sher-Wood Hockey, the exclusive puck supplier of the ECHL. Since beginning its sponsorship of the award in 2000-01, Sher-Wood Hockey has donated more than 29,000 pucks to youth hockey organizations in ECHL cities.

Iles, 22, went 3-0-0 with a 1.62 goals-against average and a save percentage of .943 in three appearances last week.

Iles stopped 23 shots in a 3-2 shootout win against Reading on Wednesday, made 27 saves in a 3-2 victory over the Royals on Friday and turned aside 32 shots in a 6-1 win against Greenville on Friday.

A native of Ithaca, N.Y., Iles appeared in five games with the Everblades after completing his collegiate career compiling a record of 4-1-0 with a 2.74 goals-against average and a save percentage of .896.  Prior to joining the Everblades, Iles played four seasons at Cornell University where he went 58-47-17 with nine shutouts, a 2.26 goals-against average and a save percentage of .917.

Iles becomes the second Everblades goaltender to win the weekly honor this season.  Trevor Cann took home the same honor for the week of December 9-15.

2014-15 Ticket Packages are currently on sale! Full season and 12-game, and 24-game options are also available! All packages save you money from the box office price, and come with many great benefits.  For more information call  239-948-7825, or stop by the Everblades Main Office located at Germain Arena, Monday—Friday, from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

The Everblades are the proud ECHL affiliate of the Carolina Hurricanes and TampaBay Lightning.

###