News release
10 April 2010
The Elmira Jackals outshot the Florida Everblades 44-20 en route to a 6-3 win on Saturday night at First Arena in Elmira, N.Y. in Game 4 of their American Conference Quartefinal series. The victory forced a decisive Game 5 which will be played at First Arena on Sunday at 4:05 p.m.
The Jackals had not scored the first goal in the series' three previous games, but in game four they struck first. Justin Donati's slap shot on the power play was stopped by Everblades goaltender Chris Beckford-Tseu, but the rebound came to the right circle and Yannick Tifu buried it to give Elmira the 1-0 lead.
The Everblades battled back with a pair of goals to take a 2-1 lead. Shea Guthrie scored at 11:59 from Matt Duffy and Matthew Pistilli to even the score, and then Pistilli took a feed from Brandon Buck off a Jackals turnover and scored to give the Everblades the advantage.
At 15:38 of the first period, Tyler Donati redirected a Wes Cunningham shot into the net with the Jackals on the power play, and the busy first period came to an end with the score tied 2-2.
Elmira took its second lead of the game at 13:27 of the second period. Tyler Donati sent a cross-ice pass for Chaz Johnson to the left circle, and Johnson beat Beckford-Tseu stick side for the first of his two goals on the game to give the Jackals a 3-2 lead.
Moments later, Milan Gajic took a tip pass from Pistilli at center ice, skated in on Jackals goaltender Chris Holt, and beat him glove side to even the score 3-3 at 15:14 of the middle frame.
The Jackals responded minutes later, when Mat Robinson scored his first professional playoff goal with a shot from the high slot at 18:00 to give the Jackals a 4-3 lead. Elmira would not look back.
A goal from Chaz Johnson from the left circle on a feed from Justin Donati, who recorded his fourth assist of the game on the play, gave Elmira insurance at 5:38, and Olivier Proulx tipped in a Tyler Donati shot for the Jackals' third power-play goal at 9:52, and the Jackals prevailed 6-3 over the Everblades.
Holt stopped 17 of 20 shots to improve to 2-2 in the first round, while Beckford Tseu fell to 2-2 with his 38-save performance.
The winner of tomorrow's Game 5 will play the winner of the Kalamazoo/Reading series, which the Royals currently lead, two games to one.