ECHL Playoffs: Florida beats Idaho in OT in Game 1 of Kelly Cup Finals

BOISE, Idaho – The Florida Everblades traveled to Idaho and took care of business in the first two games of the Kelly Cup Finals at Idaho Central Arena.

That leaves the Blades three chances to win their second straight ECHL title at Hertz Arena this week.

The reigning Kelly Cup champions picked up a 5-3 win Sunday night after winning a 3-2 overtime thriller Saturday to take home-ice advantage away from the league's top regular-season team with a 2-0 edge in the best-of-seven championship series.

The series moves to Estero on Wednesday with Game 3 starting at 7:30 p.m., Game 4 will be Friday at 7:30 and if necessary, Game 5 would be Saturday night at 7.

More:Record-setting Idaho stands between Everblades and repeating as ECHL Kelly Cup champions

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Logan Lambdin scored goals in the first and last minute of the second period and was a factor in Florida's first three goals to bolster the Blades to their win Sunday night.

A physical first period saw the Blades outshoot the Steelheads 17-11 and take a 1-1 tie into the first intermission. For the second consecutive game, Idaho struck first as veteran Matt Register buried a slap shot from the blue line to stake the home team to a 1-0 lead at 11:49.

Ashton Calder evened the score for Florida with nine seconds remaining on the Blades’ first power-play opportunity of the contest at the 19:40 mark. Calder picked up his third goal of the playoffs on a one-timer from the slot following a picture-perfect feed from Sean Josling, with Lambdin adding a helper.

After the first intermission, Lambdin took over. As play resumed in the second period, Lambdin wasted little time, scoring just 50 seconds into the middle frame. With his seventh goal of the playoffs, Lambdin allowed the Blades to play with a lead for the first time in the series.

Lambdin wasn't done, as he slipped behind the Idaho defense and scored his second goal of the period and eighth of the playoffs with just 5.8 seconds on the clock to give Florida a 3-1 cushion heading into the third period.

Levko Koper extended the Everblades’ lead to 4-1 with his third goal of the playoffs at 13:42 of the third period.

Idaho would not go easily as Justin Misiak scored on the power-play and Ty Pelton-Byce added a tally 21 seconds later to trim the Blades’ lead to 4-3 with 4:03 to play.

A shorthanded empty-net goal by Ben Masella with 29.6 seconds to play closed out the scoring.

On Saturday, Oliver Chau scored the game-winning goal at 14:06 into overtime to lift the Florida Everblades to a 3-2 victory.

John McCarron picked up a loose puck in the slot, passed it back to Chau who rifled home his seventh goal of the playoffs to give the Everblades a 1-0 series victory.

The Everblades appeared to score the first goal of the series on a Lambdin tip-in four minutes after the opening faceoff, but the goal was disallowed due to a high stick call. Idaho was able to claim a 1-0 lead at the 15:38 mark as Dawson Barteaux converted while Florida was 30 seconds away from withstanding a Steelheads’ 5-on-3 advantage. Both goaltenders made high-quality stops throughout a very physical first period between the respective conference champions, with the Blades’ Cam Johnson recording 13 saves and Idaho's Adam Scheel turning aside eight Florida shots.

Cole Moberg's second goal of the playoffs drew the Everblades even, as he blasted the puck past Scheel from the right point at 7:06 of the middle period following a successful faceoff by Cam Darcy and a quick feed from Zach Uens to knot the score at 1-1, the third straight game in which the Blades were tied after 40 minutes.

The 1-1 deadlock would hold for nearly seven minutes into the third period, but Idaho's Ryan Dmowski gave the Steelheads a 2-1 lead at 6:54, wristing home a feed from behind the Florida net. Florida was not done, as Blake Winiecki picked up a power-play goal at the 12:39 mark for his ninth of the playoffs, as McCarron and Chau earned the assists to knot the game at 2-2. It was the third consecutive game that the Everblades scored on the man advantage and was enough to send Florida to a seventh overtime game this postseason.