Florida Everblades Get Hammered 7-1 By The Augusta Lynx - ECHL

MLN Newswire - www.mlntherawfeed.com – AUGUSTA, GA – The Florida Everblades (19-12-3) suffered their worst loss of the season on Thursday night as they fell 7-1 to the Augusta Lynx (20-13-3) in front of a crowd of 2,141 at James Brown Arena. Lynx forward Aaron Slattengren led the way offensively by notching his third hat-trick of the season, while goaltender Bobby Goepfert took care of the backend stopping 31 of 32 shots.

The Lynx opened the game’s scoring midway through the first period while on a delayed penalty. Slattengren tallied the first of his three goals on the night at 11:39 after Jeremy Schenderling’s shot from the slot was stopped by Everblades goaltender Justin Peters. Slattengren swooped in the left corner to poke the loose puck into the net for a 1-0 August lead.

The lead held for Augusta entering the second period when they exploded for three goals to open a 4-0 lead entering the second intermission. The first of the three tallies came off the stick on Lynx captain Louis Goulet who led a give-and-go into the offensive zone with Slattengren before deflecting the pass back from Slattengren by Peters at 11:43 for a 2-0 lead.

Just 1:36 later while enjoying a 5-on-3 power play, Augusta increased their lead to three on Slattengren’s second goal of the night. Slattengren was camped out in the slot and after Peters made a save on Brian Yandall’s point shot, Slattengren slipped home the rebound inside the right post. Slattengren the completed the hat-trick at 17:54 by deflecting a pass from Schenderling inside the left post for a 4-0 Augusta lead.

Despite good pressure by the Everblades at the start of the third period, it was the Lynx that scored first in the period just 1:55 into the frame. Chase Watson tallied his fourth goal of the season to increase the Augusta lead to 5-0. The Everblades finally cracked the scoreboard midway through the third period when Brad Herauf’s rush into the zone led to a wrap-around goal at the left post at 7:44. Ernie Hartlieb and Brandon Roach added assists on Herauf’s seventh goal of the season.

Any hope of an Everblades comeback unfortunately disappeared just 16 seconds later when Bobby Bolt raced in on a short-handed breakaway before wristing a shot between the pads of Peters at 7:58. The Lynx then closed out the scoring with their third power play marker of the night when Watson deflected home a pass from the bottom of the right circle by James Brannigan with 2:32 remaining in regulation.

Peters saw his record fall to 13-6-2 after allowing the seven goals on 38 shots, while Goepfert improved to 8-2-0 with the win.

On the power play, the Everblades closed out night 0-for-5, while the Lynx finished 3-for-11.