WORCESTER, Mass. – ECHL All-Star Anthony Romano scored a pair of first-period goals, Gianfranco Cassaro added a goal and an assist, and the Florida Everblades knocked off the Worcester Railers 5-3 Sunday afternoon in the DCU Center to win the rubber game of the teams’ three-game series
 
Following a testy pre-game warmup, the Everblades struck first, as Romano redirected a shot from the blue line by Kade Landry for his 10^th goal of the season, putting Florida on top 1-0 just 4:05 into the contest.

After Worcester’s Michael Suda evened the score at the 7:14 mark, Romano reclaimed the lead for the Everblades with his second goal of the afternoon coming on the power play at 13:04. Two beautiful feeds by Jordan Sambrook and Cassaro set up Romano’s 11^th goal of the year and gave the good guys a 2-1 lead and a 13-6 shot advantage after 20 minutes.
 
Action from a busy first period bubbled over into the middle frame. After Worcester’s Jesse Pulkkinen tied the game 1:18 into the second, the Everblades retook the lead for the third time. Jett Jones redirected a Zach Berzolla shot home for his second marker of the year, putting Florida in front 3-2 at 8:59. Kyle Betts also earned a helper.
 
Cassaro gave the Everblades some breathing room and a 4-2 lead with 35.2 seconds left in the middle period. Cassaro’s fourth goal of the season came the sharpest of angles, as he potted a pass from Craig Needham while straddling the goal line wide of the net to end the second period. The Blades outshot Worcester 11-7 over the middle 20 minutes.
 
Anthony Repaci’s shorthanded goal for Worcester at 5:45 of the third period cut the Everblades’ lead to 4-3. The Blades had several great looks in the final two minutes thanks to an ill-advised bench minor on the Railers, and finally tacked on an empty-net goal with 9.3 seconds left to close out the 5-3 victory. Betts picked up an assist to join Romano and Cassaro with two-point games.
 
The Everblades outshot Worcester 14-7 in the final period and 38-20 for the game.
 
Will Cranley (11-1-0-0) stopped 17 shots in goal for the Everblades. Worcester netminder Tristan Lennox, who appeared in one game with the NHL’s New York Islanders in 2024-25, made 33 saves for the Railers.

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BLADES BITS
 
Anthony Romano had his second two-goal game of the season. The ECHL All-Star potted a pair of goals in the Blades’ 6-3 win over Savannah November 28 at Hertz Arena. Sunday’s effort was Romano’s seventh multi-point game in 2025-26.

With back-to-back two-point games, Gianfranco Cassaro has one goal and three assists in the last two games and has registered six points (1G, 5A) in five January contests.
 
Jett Jones, who rejoined the Everblades from AHL Springfield in time for the Worcester series, collected his first goal with the Blades since earning second star honors in a 6-1 win at Orlando on October 21.
 
Craig Needham’s six-game goal scoring streak came to an end, but his second period assist on Cassaro’s goal ran his point streak to seven contests.
 
Will Cranley was a winner in goal for his 10^th straight game, as he improved to 11-1 on the season.
 
The Everblades scored first in all three games this weekend in Worcester.

Nine different Everblades notched at least one point in Sunday’s victory.


Sunday Afternoon’s Scoresheet 

 
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