May 24, 2012 7:20 AM
Led by a pair of rookies who spent time with the Checkers this season, the ECHL’s Florida Everblades captured their first-ever Kelly Cup championship in style.
Goalie John Muse made 41 saves and forward Justin Shugg scored the game’s opening goal as the Everblades defeated the Las Vegas Wranglers 3-2 in overtime on Tuesday to win the series in just five games. That matched the longest series of the playoffs for Florida, the Checkers’ ECHL affiliate, which finished with an overall postseason record of 15-3.
As the culmination of another successful season that saw him capture his third championship in five years (he won two NCAA titles while at Boston College), Muse took home the league’s playoff MVP award. He ranked second in playoff goals-against average (1.78) and save percentage (.939), trailing only teammate Pat Nagle, who appeared in six games while Muse recovered from a lower-body injury suffered in mid-April.
Including a sterling stretch with the Checkers that saw him go 10-3-2 after Mike Murphy’s injury and Justin Peters’ recall pressed him into starting duty, Muse was 37-11-5 with a 2.09 goals-against average and .930 save percentage across all competitions this season.
Muse, an undrafted 23-year-old who signed a one-year, two-way contract with the Checkers last summer, is set to become a free agent.
Shugg, 20, captured his third championship in four years, having won the Memorial Cup, awarded to the best team in all of Canadian major junior hockey, with the Windsor Spitfires in 2009 and 2010. He narrowly missed the four-peat, as his Mississauga team lost in the Memorial Cup final in 2011.
The Carolina Hurricanes’ fourth-round draft pick in 2010 finished the postseason with 12 points (7g, 5a) in 11 games. All seven of his goals came in his last eight games, as he finished the playoffs on a six-game point streak (5g, 4a).
Shugg, who signed a three-year, entry-level contract with the Hurricanes prior to this season, looks set to become an integral part of the Checkers offense moving forward. He scored 13 points (5g, 8a) at the AHL level this season, all of which came in his last 25 games, and added three shootout goals on five attempts while ranking second on the team with a plus-5 rating.
Other former Checkers who played for the Everblades include Cedric McNicoll, a third-year pro who tied for the league lead in playoff scoring (21 points), and Joe Sova, a rookie defenseman who chipped in three assists in seven games. Forward Matt Beca (14 points) and defenseman Ryan Donald (five assists, plus-11), each of whom signed two-way contracts with Charlotte last summer, also played key roles. |
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