ESTERO, Fla. –  The Florida Everblades returned to the win column and sent a sellout crowd of 7,496 Southwest Florida hockey fans home happy with a wire-to-wire 3-2 victory over the Toledo Walleye Saturday night at Hertz Arena. Saturday’s victory earned the Blades a split with the ECHL Central Division leaders.

Colin Theisen staked the Everblades to a 1-0 first-period lead with his 19^th goal of the season at the 9:47 mark of the opening stanza.

Florida doubled its lead on Tarun Fizer’s 13^th marker of the year just over five minutes into the second period. A Brandon Hawkins goal 42 seconds later brought the Walleye back within one, but Colton Hargrove struck on the power play to put the Blades back on top by a pair at 12:43, extending the good guys’ lead to 3-2 after 40 minutes.

Hawkins’ second goal of the night for Toledo, a power-play marker at 9:07 of the third period closed out the scoring and a 3-2 Everblades victory.

Florida netminder Cam Johnson stopped 25 of 27 shots to earn his ECHL-best 35^th win of the season. The Everblades outshot the Walleye 35-27, winning the shots on goal battle in each of the three periods.

Next up for the Everblades is a two-game jaunt to Savannah on April 5-6 before the boys return to Hertz Arena for three games against the Atlanta Gladiators on April 9, 11-12, a final tune-up before the 2025 Kelly Cup Playoffs get underway. Visit floridaeverblades.com for more information and to purchase tickets.

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BLADES BITS

Saturday’s crowd of 7,496 was the Everblades’ 17^th sellout of the season in 33 openings at Hertz Arena.

Three different Everblades scored goals and five other skaters added assists, including Carson Gicewicz and Josh Ho-Sang. Gicewicz got back in the point column after seeing his nine-game point streak come to an end on Friday, while Ho-Sang picked up his first point since rejoining the Blades in time for Friday’s game.

Harrison Israels also notched his first professional point with a helper on Tarun Fizer’s second-period goal.

The Everblades (45-14-7-1) kept pace with South Carolina (48-14-3-2), a 7-1 winner at Kalamazoo on Saturday. Florida remains in second place, three points out of the South Division lead with five regular-season games left on the docket.

Saturday Night’s Scoresheet 

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