The Kansas City Mavericks scored five unanswered goals to top the Florida Everblades 5-1 in Game 2 of the ECHL Kelly Cup Finals. Standouts and top performers from the game.
The Kansas City Mavericks scored five unanswered goals to top the Florida Everblades 5-1 in Game 2 of the ECHL Kelly Cup Finals. Four different skaters recorded multi-point efforts for the Mavericks, while goaltender Jack LaFontaine turned aside 35 of 36 shots on goal.
Florida opened the scoring just 90 seconds into the game on Zach Berzolla's first postseason goal. Less than ten minutes later, Jeremy McKenna evened the score on the power play, the first of three power-play markers for Kansas City on the night.
The Mavericks scored two goals in both the second and third periods. Max Andreev and Jacob Hayhurst recorded tallies in the middle frame. Cole Coskey and Max Andreev scored empty-net goals in the third.
Let's look at our standouts and top performers from Saturday's Game 2.
Kansas City Mavericks
#12 Jeremy McKenna, F
Jeremy McKenna tied the game at 1-1 in the first period for the second time in as many nights. The Mavericks forward scored on a sharp-angle shot just before the power-play expired. McKenna now has five goals in his last three games and leads all skaters with ten in the 2024 Kelly Cup Playoffs overall.
#44 Max Andreev, F
What's better than one power-play goal? How about two? Max Andreev scored just 18 seconds into the second period on a snipe off a beautiful cross-ice pass from David Cotton. The goal marked Andreev's first of the series and fourth of the postseason. The Mavericks forward added his second of the night, an empty-net goal, to put the game out of reach.
#14 Jacob Hayhurst, F
What's better than two power-play goals? How about three? Jacob Hayhurst zipped a wrister past Florida goaltender on McKenna's centering feed. The Mavericks forward, who led all skaters with six shots on goal, tallied his first goal since Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals.
#1 Jack LaFontaine, G
LaFontaine turned aside 35 of 36, including all 26 shots over the final 40 minutes of play. The Kansas City goaltender had a big glove save on Mark Senden in the first period and made back-to-back blocker saves from his knees in the third. LaFontaine has been as good as it gets in these playoffs and has allowed only one goal in each of his last five straight outings.
Florida Everblades
#3 Zach Berzolla, D
Berzolla picked a great time to record his first goal of the 2024 Kelly Cup Playoffs. The Everblades blueliner scored 90 seconds into the game on a wrister from the high slot through traffic that found the back of the net. Berzolla led Florida with a team-high six shots on goal.
#20 Oliver Chau, F
Oliver Chau picked up the primary assist on Berzolla's tally, giving the Florida forward 13 postseason assists and just one off the lead behind teammate Josh Ho-Sang. Chau extended his point streak to three games and has seven assists over his last six contests.