{"id":706048,"date":"2026-05-31T09:49:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-31T09:49:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/706048\/"},"modified":"2026-05-31T09:49:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-31T09:49:10","slug":"official-site-of-the-echl-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/706048\/","title":{"rendered":"Official Site of The ECHL"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Florida Everblades claimed the <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.echl.com\/en\/pages\/award-pages\/gingher-trophy\">E.A. \u201cBud\u201d Gingher Trophy<\/a> as Eastern Conference champions on Saturday with a 6-1 win over the Wheeling Nailers in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Finals.<br \/>\u00a0<br \/>Florida wins the series 4 games to 1, and advances to the 2026 Kelly Cup Finals, where it will meet the winner of the Western Conference Finals. Kansas City leads Fort Wayne in that series 3 games to 1, with Game 5 set for Sunday at Fort Wayne.<br \/>\u00a0<br \/>Anthony Romano (3g-1a) and Hudson Elynuik (1g-3a) led Florida in the series with four points each while Cam Johnson allowed seven goals over the five games, registering a .945 save percentage.<br \/>\u00a0<br \/>The Everblades &#8211; who are 12-2 in the 2026 Kelly Cup Playoffs &#8211; advance to the Kelly Cup Finals for the fourth time in five seasons, and for the eighth time in team history, extending their ECHL record. Florida has won an ECHL-record four championships, including three consecutive titles in 2022, 2023 and 2024.<br \/>\u00a0<br \/>The trophy is named in recognition of <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/echl.com\/en\/hall-of-fame\/e-a-bud-gingher\">E.A. \u201cBud\u201d Gingher<\/a>, who was Chairman of the ECHL Board of Governors from 1992-95. Gingher, who passed away in 2002, co-founded the Dayton Bombers in 1991 and owned the team for seven seasons, serving as President and Governor until selling the team in 1998. Gingher was inducted into the <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" href=\"http:\/\/www.echlhalloffame.com\/\">ECHL Hall of Fame<\/a> in 2010.<\/p>\n<p>E.A. \u201cBud\u201d Gingher Trophy Champions<br \/>2026 \u00a0\u00a0 Florida Everblades<br \/>2025\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Trois-Rivi\u00e8res Lions<br \/>2024\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Florida Everblades<br \/>2023\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Florida Everblades<br \/>2022\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Florida Everblades<br \/>2021\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 South Carolina Stingrays<br \/>2020\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Trophy not awarded due to COVID-19<br \/>2019\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Newfoundland Growlers<br \/>2018\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Florida Everblades<br \/>2017\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 South Carolina Stingrays\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<br \/>2016\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Wheeling Nailers\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<br \/>2015\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 South Carolina Stingrays\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<br \/>2014\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cincinnati Cyclones\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<br \/>2013\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Reading Royals\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<br \/>2012\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Florida Everblades\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<br \/>2011\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Kalamazoo Wings\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<br \/>2010\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cincinnati Cyclones\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<br \/>2009\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 South Carolina Stingrays\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<br \/>2008\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cincinnati Cyclones\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<br \/>2007\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Dayton Bombers\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<br \/>2006\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Gwinnett Gladiators\u00a0\u00a0<br \/>2005\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Florida Everblades\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<br \/>2004\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Florida Everblades\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<br \/>2003\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Atlantic City Boardwalk Bullies\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<br \/>2002\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Dayton Bombers\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<br \/>2001\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Trenton Titans<br \/>2000\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Peoria Rivermen\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<br \/>1999\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Richmond Renegades<br \/>1998\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Hampton Roads Admirals<br \/>\u00a0<br \/>About the ECHL<br \/>\u00a0<br \/>Formed in 1988-89 with five teams in four states, the ECHL has grown into a coast-to-coast league with 30 teams in 23 states and one Canadian province for its 38th season in 2025-26. There have been <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/echl.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com\/production\/echl\/uploads\/files\/ECHL%20Alumni.pdf\">782 players<\/a> who have gone on to play in the National Hockey League after starting their careers in the ECHL, including <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.echl.com\/en\/pages\/alumni\">14 who have made their NHL debuts in the 2025-26 season<\/a>. The ECHL has <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.echl.com\/en\/pages\/nhl-ahl-affiliations\">affiliations<\/a> with 30 of the 32 NHL teams in 2025-26, marking the 28th consecutive season that the league has affiliations with at least 20 teams in the NHL. Further information on the ECHL is available on its website at <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" href=\"http:\/\/www.echl.com\/\">ECHL.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/everblades-26-ec-champs-6a1ba4598be3d.jpg\" alt=\"everblades-26-ec-champs-6a1ba4598be3d.jpg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Florida Everblades claimed the E.A. \u201cBud\u201d Gingher Trophy as Eastern Conference champions on Saturday with a 6-1&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":706049,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[64,63,575,85],"class_list":["post-706048","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/706048","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=706048"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/706048\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/706049"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=706048"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=706048"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=706048"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}