By Fred Liggett
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The 2024 Kelly Cup Finals got underway on Friday night pitting the owners of the best regular season record Kansas City Mavericks against the defending Kelly Cup Champions the Florida Everblades. The two teams never met during the regular season but they have now as Florida comes away with an impressive 8-1 game one victory.

The Mavericks have lost four playoff games so far in the Kelly Cup playoffs with this being the team’s fourth playoff series. The two teams came out firing from the puck drop with Florida scoring first just three minutes into the game. Bobo Carpenter put the visitors up 1-0 with 17:00 left in the opening period. The Mavs would answer with 13:34 left in the period thanks to Jeremy McKenna tying the game at one. The game would continue at a frantic pace until Oliver Chau untied it for Florida with a goal coming at 4:05 left to make it 2-1. Cole Moberg slid one past Mavs goaltender Cale Morris with 2:16 left to make it a 3-1 game after the first 20 minutes of action.

The second period saw the game get away from the Mavericks as Bobo Carpenter, Reece Zmolek and Oliver Chao all scored for Florida and when it ended it was a 7-1 Florida lead. Only more goal came in the third period giving Florida an 8-1 game one win. The final score may have ended up one sided but in shots on goal Florida had 36, with the Mavs tallying 35.

The Mavericks will look to regroup and tie the series at one with a win in game two. Florida and the Mavericks play game two on Saturday, Jun. 1 with a puck drop at 7:05 p.m. inside Cable Dahmer Arena

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