‘This team never quits.’ Steelheads bound for Florida down 2 games in Kelly Cup Finals

The Idaho Steelheads had hoped a short turnaround after a fiercely physical Game 1 loss would fuel their fire.

Instead, the Florida Everblades rode the momentum of that overtime victory to a 5-3 win Sunday at Idaho Central Arena to take a 2-0 lead in the Kelly Cup Finals.

The ECHL’s championship series now moves to Estero, Florida, beginning with Game 3 at 5:30 p.m. Mountain time Wednesday at Hertz Arena.

“Our team has never quit all season long,” Steelheads coach Everett Sheen said. “You saw it on display here tonight. I honestly thought we were gonna tie it up there when we got that power play, but bounces weren’t going our way tonight. I’ve said this team never quits on anything, and we’re not quitting just yet.”

Florida led 4-1 late in the third period when Idaho made a rousing comeback.

With 4:24 left, Idaho forward Justin Misiak scored a power-play goal with goaltender Adam Scheel on the bench for an extra attacker, making it 6-on-4. Just 21 seconds later, fellow forward Ty Pelton-Byce brought the Steelheads within 4-3.

“That was big,” Sheen said. “There was a lot of belief on the bench there and the whole group thought we were going to make it a tie game and send it to overtime.”

Idaho got another break with 3:12 to play when Florida forward John McCarron received a four-minute double minor for high sticking, giving the Steelheads a power-play opportunity and hope of an equalizer.

Idaho called a timeout with 1:24 remaining, opting to pull Scheel again for a 6-on-4 advantage, but defenseman Ben Masella fired at the empty net and scored from deep in his defensive zone to secure the victory for Florida with 29.6 seconds left.

“In all honesty, we’ve just got to be better,” Pelton-Byce said. “We didn’t have a very good game today. Hopefully that last few minutes there where we turned it on a little bit can help us right a little bit going into Florida.”

Defenseman Matt Register gave Idaho a 1-0 lead on a slap shot with 8:11 to go in the opening frame, but the Everblades knotted the score when forward Ashton Calder scored with just 20.4 seconds left in the first.

Florida then pulled ahead 3-1 with a pair of goals from forward Logan Lambdin in the second period. The Everblades’ lead grew to 4-1 courtesy of Levko Koper’s goal at 13:42 of the third period.

Although the winner of Game 1 is 24-9 all-time in ECHL Finals history, the Steelheads have already come back from a 2-0 deficit once this postseason, rallying for a 4-2 series win against Utah in the first round after losing the first two games at home.

“Credit to our guys there for making it interesting down the stretch,” Sheen said. “... They finished out hard, but I think we need to bring that effort all 60 minutes. I don’t think that was there tonight, unfortunately. But we’ve been in this situation before and we’ve got to claw our way out of it.”