My 100th Post: Blades & Bombers

I recently moved from Tampa, where I've been a lifelong fan of the Lightning to Fort Myers. I was annoyed that Lightning games weren't shown down here and despite getting to watch nationally televised Stanley Cup playoff games, I needed to be able to see a game in person. As luck would have it, this happens to be an ECHL market.

ECHL is the East Coast Hockey League. It's the "premier 'AA' hockey league" — whatever that means. Anyway, I figured minor league hockey is better than no hockey. Well, turns out it is — but not by much.

Last night, as part of a celebration of my first weekend since starting my new job, my girlfriend and I went to see the Florida Everblades face the Dayton Bombers in Game 2 of the American Conference Finals. The Bombers won Game 1 by a score of 4-3 after a record three overtime periods. All right, so basically this is the last round of playoffs before the Kelly Cup Finals. The equivalent of the Stanley Cup. The ECHL championship, essentially.

The Everblades play at Germain Arena in Estero — not 30 minutes from our apartment in Fort Myers. We bought our tickets online and picked them up at the rink. The game started well enough. Florida got the first lead but quickly blew it, allowing two Dayton goals in the span of 51 seconds. They went into period two down 2-1.

Fans at the game were rather diverse. You had your hard core hockey fans just looking for pucks and ice (me). You had your drunks just looking for any form of entertainment. You had your kids seeking out the cool place to be — I guess. And, surprisingly to me, a very large number of people actually wearing Everblades jerseys. But you gotta figure — every team has to have its fans.

I wanted a jersey of my own but they were a little more than I wanted to spend. My brother may try out for them next season. If he makes the team, I'll buy a jersey then. Instead, I settled for a green t-shirt. It was a nice one, actually.

Anyway, the second period turned out to be a lot kinder to the Everblades. They scored three times and held the Bombers to nothing. At this point, it started to become clear which players were the fan favorites and the stars. Vince Bellissimo (who wears #26), seems to be the star. In the second, he scored his ninth goal of the playoffs. The goalie is Craig Kowalski (#33) and everyone seemed to cheer pretty loudly when they announced his name for the starting lineups.

Brad Parsons (#7) also seems to be a pretty decent force on the ice. Parsons scored the fifth goal for the Blades and he and Bellissimo each earned three points (a goal and two assists). So going into period three, Florida had a rather comfortable 4-2 lead over Dayton. But all night, the Bombers showed they weren't to be taken lightly.

Three minutes into the final period, things started to get tense again when the Bombers scored to get within one goal. But as the clock ticked down, the Everblades tallied an insurance goal that all but spelled victory. That's how the game would end.

So it was a decent night out, but I think I'm spoiled as far as on-ice talent goes. I'm used to the extremely fast-paced, hard-hitting action of the NHL. So I have to say I was a little surprised to see how slowly the puck moved in this game. I know I shouldn't expect it as it is "AA" hockey, but I've been watching night-after-night of Stanley Cup hockey for the last month, so my bearings are a little off. Still, it was a fun game to watch and we'll definitely go back.

One more interesting note: Dayton goalie Adam Berkhoel played a few games in the NHL last season for the Atlanta Thrashers — including two against the Lightning. FYI: The Bolts won the games 6-0 and 5-2. Berkhoel was called up by the Thrashers for nine games while playing for the Chicago Wolves of the American Hockey League in 2005-06.

Oh yeah, this was officially the 100th post of my blog. I'm prolific. Thanks for reading.