Kansas City Mavericks season ends with overtime loss in Game 5 of Kelly Cup Finals

The Kansas City Mavericks’ most successful season in team history came to an end Saturday night, when the ECHL team lost Game 5 of the Kelly Cup Finals to the Florida Everblades 4-3 in overtime.

The Mavericks, who lost the series 4-1, came three wins short of a Kelly Cup Finals victory in their first-ever appearance in the championship series.

This season, Kansas City won its first ever Mountain Division title while finishing the regular season with 54 wins, the most — by 6 — of any team in the ECHL. The Mavericks’ 13 playoff wins also set a team record. The Mavericks have been around for 15 seasons.

Saturday’s game followed a familiar script — unfortunately for the Mavericks — as they led 3-1 after two periods before giving up two goals in the third. KC also led 3-1 in Wednesday’s Game 3 before dropping that contest 6-3.

Games 3-5 were played at Hertz Arena in Estero, Florida, after the Mavs earned a home split in Games 1 and 2.

The Mavericks’ three goals on Saturday came from David Cotton (assisted by Max Andreev) in the first period and Andreev (assisted by David Noel and Jacob Hayhurst) and Nolan Walker (assisted by Jake Jaremko and Jeremy McKenna) in the second.

Florida’s Matt Wedman scored the winning goal in overtime.

Mavericks goaltender Jack LaFontaine was credited with 35 saves on 39 shots (89.7% save percentage). However, the Mavericks were only credited with four shots on goal, total, between the third period and overtime, while they faced 21 in that time from Florida.