JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The Florida Everblades rolled to a dominant 5-1 victory Friday night over the Jacksonville Icemen for the 1200^th victory in franchise history. 

There was no scoring throughout a testy first period that featured plenty of physical play between the two sides. Florida pressured early, firing each of the first three shots towards the net of Cameron Rowe, including a pair from Anthony Romano. Jacksonville’s best chance came off the stick of David Jankowski, but the Icemen forward delivered his bid off the crossbar to keep the hosts off the board while on the man advantage. 

Temperatures boiled over with just over three minutes to play in the first period as Connor Doherty and Jacques Bouquot were whistled for roughing penalties. 

Both netminders throughout the opening 20 minutes, with Florida’s Kyle McClellan denying all five Jacksonville shots and Rowe stopping all eight shots he faced. 

Florida’s offense came roaring to life in the middle frame, striking for a trio of goals to build a commanding 3-0 lead, outshooting Jacksonville 12-4. 

Romano nearly opened the scoring off a mishap from Jacksonville’s defense, leaving a loose puck for the Everblades forward to pounce on, setting up a partial breakaway chance, but was shut down by Rowe. Moments later Taos Jordan was whistled for cross-checking, gifting the Blades their first man advantage, but could not convert, including a bullet from Jordan Sambrook that clanked off the iron, keeping the game scoreless.

Midway through the second period, the Everblades took advantage of a 5-on-3 power play, converting both opportunities. First, Romano finished off a neat passing play from Hudson Elynuik and Sam Stange for his team's leading 23^rd goal of the season. 33 seconds later, Oliver Chau buried his 17^th of the season, blasting home a shot from the top of the right circle to extend Florida’s lead. Sam Stange capped off an exciting second period potting a feed from Romano to make it a 3-0 Everblades lead. 

Brad Ralph’s group began the third period with an excellent penalty kill to maintain their three-goal advantage, holding Jacksonville without a shot. 

Jacksonville cut into the Florida lead 5:11 as Taos Jordan found the back of the net for his sixth of the season on a shot from the left circle through a maze of traffic to bring the hosts within two. Florida nearly answered back moments later off a zone entry, but Elynuik could not connect his cross-ice feed with a cutting Romano as the ice opened up for both sides in transition, with McClellan forced to make a point-blank save to keep it a 3-1 game. 

Cole Moberg restored the Blades' three-goal lead with 11:27 remaining, firing a wrist shot from the left point through screens in front for his third goal of the season. Stange added his second of the night at the 13:05 mark of the third period, snapping home a shot from the top of the right circle off a pass from Moberg, pushing Florida’s lead to four at 5-1.

Kyle McClellan earned the victory in net for Florida, turning away 14 of 15 shots for his second victory as an Everblade. 

Game Sheet

Blades Bites

Anthony Romano tallied on all three second-period goals, including his team-leading 23^rd goal of the season. Romano leads Florida with 56 points and notched his fourth three-point performance of the season.

Sam Stange recorded a pair of points in the second period and notched his fourth contest with three points, adding his second goal of the night in the third period.  

Florida has recorded power-play goals in three straight games, operating at 33 percent during this stretch (4/12).

Cole Moberg has points in six straight games and goals in back-to-back contests.