EAGLES

Florida Everblades snatch last-minute win over Colorado Eagles to even up Kelly Cup Finals

Kevin Lytle
The Coloradoan
The Florida Everblades scored a last-minute goal to beat the Colorado Eagles 4-3 in Game 2 of the Kelly Cup Finals on Sunday night.

Series on.

The Colorado Eagles were within reach of a 2-0 series lead to open the Kelly Cup Finals, but the Florida Everblades snatched a dramatic winner Sunday night to even things up.

The Eagles led twice, including in the third period, but Florida scored a game-winner with 36 seconds left in the third period to give the Everblades a 4-3 win at Budweiser Events Center to tie the series 1-1.

The teams threw power play goals back and forth through the first two periods. Jake Marto scored late in the first to make it 1-0 Colorado.

The Everblades then took a lead with power play goals of their own (from Sam Warning and Matt Mackenzie) in the first 7:11 of the second period.

Colorado evened things on a 5-on-3 goal from J.C. Beaudin late in the second. Marto's second of the night made it 3-2 Colorado less than six minutes into the third.

The lead didn't last even a minute as Stephen MacAulay scored to tie things 3-3.

The game seemed bound for overtime when Florida's Mitchell Heard blocked a clearance attempt, beat a defender and out-waited goaltender Joe Cannata to flip a backhanded game-winner into the net.

Colorado, the defending Kelly Cup champions, won 3-1 in Game 1 of the series. 

Series flips to Florida — While the first two games were in Colorado, the Everblades have home-ice advantage for the series, and now the next three games (and four of the next five, if necessary) will be played in Florida.

Game 3 is at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, with Game 4 at 5:30 p.m. Friday and Game 5 at 5 p.m. Saturday.

If the series goes six games, the Eagles' final home game of the season would be at 7:05 p.m. June 6 at the Budweiser Events Center. Game 7 would be back in Florida on June 9.

Follow sports reporter Kevin Lytle at twitter.com/Kevin_Lytle and at facebook.com/KevinSLytle.