ECHL American Conference Finals Begin Tuesday

[coalter17]

PRINCETON, N.J. – The American Conference Finals will begin Tuesday when South Division champion Florida hosts North Division champion Dayton in Game 1 of the best-of-seven series at Germain Arena in Estero, Fla.

Game 2 will be Thursday at Germain Arena before the series travels to the Nutter Center in Dayton for Games 3 and 4 on May 12 and 13 and Game 5, if necessary, on May 15. Game 6, if necessary, would be May 17 at Florida and Game 7, if necessary, would be played May 18 at Florida.

The winner will advance to meet the winner of the National Conference Finals in the best-of-seven Kelly Cup Finals scheduled May 23-June 6. The National Conference Finals begin on Monday when the defending Kelly Cup Champion Alaska Aces host the 2004 Kelly Cup Champion Idaho Steelheads in Game 1 of the best-of-seven series at Sullivan Arena.

Since becoming a coast-to-coast league in 2003-04, the Conference Finals have been played in Alaska, California, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, North Carolina, New Jersey, Ohio and Pennsylvania. This year’s Conference Finals will be played across three different time zones with Eastern (Dayton and Florida), Mountain (Idaho) and Alaskan. The Kelly Cup champions the last three years have come from Alaska (Aces in 2006), Idaho (Steelheads in 2004) and New Jersey (Trenton Titans in 2005) while the runner-ups have come from Florida (Everblades in 2004 and 2005) and Georgia (Gwinnett Gladiators in 2006).

Florida was 44-22-6 in the regular season and finished first in the American Conference and tied for third overall with 94 points while Dayton was 37-26-9 and finished first in the North Division and fifth in the conference in the regular season with 83 points.

Florida beat Texas 4-3 in overtime in Game 6 on Friday, advancing to the conference finals for the third time in the last four years after reaching the Kelly Cup Finals in 2004 and 2005. The Everblades, who swept Charlotte in the South Division Semifinals, have not missed the Kelly Cup Playoffs since joining the ECHL in 1998-99 and their nine consecutive appearances is the longest active streak.

Making its first postseason appearance since advancing to the Kelly Cup Finals in 2002, Dayton became only the third team in league history to overcome a 3-1 deficit when it beat Cincinnati in the North Division Finals. The Bombers, who improved 37 points from last season, swept Trenton in three games in the North Division Semifinals.

In the only meeting between the two teams on Nov. 4, 2006, Adam Berkhoel stopped 24 shots and Brent Walton (2g-0a) and Justin Maiser (0g-2a) each had two points in Dayton’s 4-2 win at the Nutter Center.

Paul Kelly leads the Bombers in the Kelly Cup Playoffs with seven goals and a plus-minus rating of +10 in 10 games while Vince Bellissimo leads the Everblades with seven goals, four power-play goals and 12 points in nine games.

Dayton’s Berkhoel is 7-3 and leads the Kelly Cup Playoffs with three shutouts while his goals-against average of 2.22 and save percentage of .925 rank sixth. Voted by league coaches as the ECHL Goaltender of the Year, Berkhoel is 3-0 with a shutout, a goals-against average of 1.67 and a save percentage of .950 in his last three starts. Florida’s Craig Kowalski is 7-2 and tied for second in the postseason with two shutouts while his save percentage of .935 is tied for fourth and his goals-against average of 2.02 ranks fifth.

Leading Florida to the Kelly Cup Playoffs in each of his six seasons, Gerry Fleming is 36-24 and is fifth in career postseason game and tied for fifth in career postseason wins. He is 243-137-52 in the regular season with the Everblades and 281-164-59 overall having coached his first season in Tallahassee in 2000-01. In his third season with the Bombers, Don MacAdam is 11-9 in the Kelly Cup Playoffs and 203-184-50 overall having coached Charlotte from 1999-2004.

Since becoming a national league in 2003-04, the ECHL has seen its Kelly Cup Champion come from Alaska with the Aces in 2006, New Jersey with the Trenton Titans in 2005 and Idaho with the Steelheads in 2004.

[coalter17]

Number 1 vs number 1. The best vs the best. Should be a hard fought series, will be alot of fun. Will surley keep you guys up-dateed throughout the whole series. I won't be surprised if those goes 7 games. Alot of talent on both sides.

Go Blades!!!!!!!

[Humpzilla]

Are Blades games worth going to (as in checking, intensity, offensive play)?

Also, how entertaining have games been thus far in the ECHL playoffs?

[coalter17]

Originally Posted by Humpzilla

Are Blades games worth going to (as in checking, intensity, offensive play)?

Also, how entertaining have games been thus far in the ECHL playoffs?

Hell yeah they are worth going to. Haven't missed a home game in years. This year they have been really entertaining, alot of hard checking, the intensity of latley has been really high, and the offensive play has been beautiful. Our offense has been really good, they pass the puck tape to tape, control it in the nuetral zone, and even our defensmen have been good on the offense end. Very entertaning games, and the Blades seem to play harder at home knowing coaches from the Panthers are usually in attendance. As far as checking goes, some games have more than others but for the most part, there has been alot of it. Great arena to watch a game, very loud crowd and great atmosphere the players seem to feed off of.

[FlagsFan]

Guarenteed you won't see a Lane Manson fight.Ain't no one that big on the Blades.

[coalter17]

Originally Posted by FlagsFan

Guarenteed you won't see a Lane Manson fight.Ain't no one that big on the Blades.

Probably not, unless Dan Baums in the lineup. Which is very likley he willbe. He was a healthy scratch the previous 2 games. But all of our other player aren't fighters, wouldn't want them to fight that big goon.

[A Jules]

Originally Posted by FlagsFan

Guarenteed you won't see a Lane Manson fight.Ain't no one that big on the Blades.

As much as I love Lane Manson, it's pretty easy to take him down. The main thing is to get close to him somehow. I saw enough of his fights last year to see he does have weaknesses. But if he can whoop some Blade butt, go Manson!!!

[coalter17]

Originally Posted by Amanda Jules

As much as I love Lane Manson, it's pretty easy to take him down. The main thing is to get close to him somehow. I saw enough of his fights last year to see he does have weaknesses. But if he can whoop some Blade butt, go Manson!!!

The Blades are too fast for his goofy a$$. Manson is so slow and goofy he will be doing circles at the blue line allowing the Blades to get to Berkhoel and score. Not too afraid of him

[FlagsFan]

What the hell is Manson's deal anyway,he eat miracle grow or something?
People ain't supposed to be that big.Not where i come from anyway.

[coalter17]

Ouch

Bomber 4 Blades 3
Triple overtime!! The longets game ever played at Germain Arena. The Bomber's dominated in the first 40 minutes of play. Taking a 3-1 lead into the 3ard period. Then it was all the Blades in the last period of regulation, they tied it up with only a few minutes to spare. In the first 2 overtime periods the Blade's dominated. They played great hockey, infact they had 25 shots in the 3 overtimes. Berkhoel played very good with 59 saves. He kept them in the game, espeacilly in the overtime periods. But the Bombers had a power play going into the 3ard obvertime period where they captialized and unfournatnley won the game. Was honestly only one of the very few good plays they had in the overtime. Both sides showed signs of fatigue. A couple of Blades players had dehydration problems. The intensity in the 3 ard period and in the first 2 overtimes was awesome and even though the Blades didn't win, it was a very entertaining hockey game.

[coalter17]

Gotta love hockey in May!!! Blades VS Bomber's tomorrow night at Germain Arena. Its time to get some revenge!!!!!!!! Will give you guys an up-date

[A Jules]

Originally Posted by coalter17

Ouch

Bomber 4 Blades 3
Triple overtime!! The longets game ever played at Germain Arena. The Bomber's dominated in the first 40 minutes of play. Taking a 3-1 lead into the 3ard period. Then it was all the Blades in the last period of regulation, they tied it up with only a few minutes to spare. In the first 2 overtime periods the Blade's dominated. They played great hockey, infact they had 25 shots in the 3 overtimes. Berkhoel played very good with 59 saves. He kept them in the game, espeacilly in the overtime periods. But the Bombers had a power play going into the 3ard obvertime period where they captialized and unfournatnley won the game. Was honestly only one of the very few good plays they had in the overtime. Both sides showed signs of fatigue. A couple of Blades players had dehydration problems. The intensity in the 3 ard period and in the first 2 overtimes was awesome and even though the Blades didn't win, it was a very entertaining hockey game.

I saw the articles on ECHL.com and it sounded like a pretty good game. Enjoy it while you still can.

[coalter17]

Everblades 5 Bomber 3

Great game. Despite the Blades being outshot 36-20 (which is very unusual) they win!!!! 3 goals in the second period got the crowd into it. Two goals were less than 2 minutes apart which got the Blades rollin and forced Dayton to take a time out. The goaltender of the year didn't look too golden tonite. And you could tell he was getting pissed, espeacilly when Dayton took the time out. He appeared to be calling the bench out, he looked like he was yelling at them flaring his arms and trying to get his team pumped up. But they couldn't get passed our hot goalie. They had alot of shots but most of the rebounds were cleared immediatley by the defense. Late in the third period things got chippy, but things got down right cheap when MAnson hits Steve Czech up high, when Manson goes skating by Kowalski, K-wal slashes him and says somthing to him. Then Manson turns around and tryed to go after K-Wal, who by the way is 5'6". Mansons legs are like 5'6". The refs escorted the a**whole off the ice but before Manson left he got an ear full from the Everblades bench, infact Brett Peterson was half way over the boards ready to go after that loser, everyone on the bench was yelling at Manson, including the 4500+ in attendance. Before all of that comossion Philippe Dupuis and Frank MacDonald had a little pushing and shoving fest. That quickly turned into MacDonald punching Dufus and Dufus was knocked down and stayed down for a couple of seconds, Both got roughing penalties and 10 min-misconducts. All in all very happy to come out on top and win the game. Can't wait till the next!!!!

[coalter17]

On another note:

Vince Bellissimo stays hot collecting 1 goal and 2 assists
Brad Parsons had 1 goal and 2 assists also
Ryan Brindley goes +2 on the nite for a +/- of +5 in the playoffs
Chris Lee get yet another timley goal

Paul Kelly had 9 shots on goal! Almost half of the Blades shots all nite!!
Joe Cullen- quite game
Yannick Tifu - not much from him tonite other than a couple of good plays that resulted in saves from K-Wal

[coalter17]

Originally Posted by Amanda Jules

I saw the articles on ECHL.com and it sounded like a pretty good game. Enjoy it while you still can.

Enjoying every minute of it