BOISE, Idaho (Ticker) -- Jay Legault scored his second overtime goal of the postseason to help the Florida Everblades avoid being swept in the best-of-seven Kelly Cup finals with a 3-2 victory over the Idaho Steelheads in Game 4 in front of a sellout crowd of 5,771 at the Bank of America Centre.
Legault, who managed just one assist over the first three games of the series, netted the game-winner 7:01 into the extra session with Reggie Berg posting an assist, his league-leading 14th helper of the playoffs.
After Idaho's Jeff Bateman scored early in the first period to give the Steelheads a 1-0 lead, Florida's Brian McCullough answered with his fifth goal of the postseason just 46 second later to tie the score. Chris Thompson added a shorthanded goal in the second period to give the Everblades their first lead in the finals.
Jeff Maund stopped all seven shots in overtime and finished with 36 saves overall to force a fifth game in the series for Florida. Zenon Konopka scored with just under 10 minutes remaining to even the score at 2-2 and force overtime for the Steelheads, who had their winning streak snapped at five games.
Dan Ellis made 32 save in the losing effort for Idaho. Game 5 is Saturday at Idaho.
The first four games of the Kelly Cup Finals have drawn standing-room-only crowds marking the first time in league history that there have been four sellouts in a row and tying the record for most sellouts in the Finals set in 1998 when Pensacola sold out Games 1, 2 and 7 and Hampton Roads sold out Game 5. The previous high for consecutive sellouts in the Finals was three set in 1993 when Toledo sold out Games 4 and 6 and Wheeling sold out Game 5, and tied in 1997 when Louisiana sold out Games 3-5. The crowd of 5,771 for Game 4 was 115.3 percent of the capacity of the Bank of America Centre (5,006) making it the largest percent of capacity crowd in Finals history, surpassing the 114.7 percent (6,202 at 5,406-seat Wheeling Civic Center) for Game 5 of the Riley Cup Finals on April 17, 1993. The crowd of 5,278 for Game 3 was 105 percent of the capacity of the Bank of America Centre (5,006) making it the third-largest percentage of capacity crowd in Finals history.
--- Box Score ---
DATE - 05/21/04 Florida (3) at Idaho (2) OT
SCORE BY PERIODS
Florida 1 1 0 1--3
Idaho 1 0 1 0--2
FIRST PERIOD -- Scoring: 1, Idaho-Bateman 1 (Paget; Cornacchia) 5:47. 2, Florida-McCullough 5 (Newman; O'Connell) 6:33. Penalties: McCullough, FLA (Slashing), 1:28. Cornacchia, IDH (Cross checking), 3:39. Cornacchia, IDH (Holding), 9:43. Paget, IDH (Roughing), 14:05. Buckley, FLA (Charging), 14:05. Surma, FLA (Roughing), 15:01.
SECOND PERIOD -- Scoring: 3, Florida-Thompson 1 (short handed) (Pagnutti; Surma) 7:55. Penalties: Konopka, IDH (Roughing), 2:16. Legault, FLA (Roughing), 2:16. Vasilyev, IDH (Roughing), 6:07. McCullough, FLA (Roughing, Butt ending, Double minor), 6:07. McCullough, FLA (Butt ending), 6:07. Pagnutti, FLA (Slashing), 18:09.
THIRD PERIOD -- Scoring: 4, Idaho-Konopka 9 (Hay) 10:38. Penalties: None.
OVERTIME -- Scoring: 5, Florida-Legault 2 (game winner) (Berg) 7:01. Penalties: None.
SHOTS ON GOAL
Florida 9 13 8 5--35
Idaho 7 9 15 7--38
Power Play Conversions: Florida - 0 of 2, Idaho - 0 of 5.
Goalies: Florida-Maund (38 shots, 36 saves; record: 2-2-1). Idaho- Ellis (35 shots, 32 saves; record: 12-1-2). A: 5771.
Referee: Fraser. Linesmen: Kephart; Voyer.
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