It was a triumphant return home for the Florida Everblades who halted a three-game losing streak in dominant fashion with a 5-0 blowout victory Wednesday night over the Cincinnati Cyclones at Germain Arena.

“We didn’t start the way we wanted to start,” said Blades coach Malcolm Cameron, “but the work ethic certainly improved from over the weekend and you have to work hard to win in this league. There are no weak teams in this league anymore, and it’s a struggle to win hockey.”

It was a struggle through the first period as Florida and Cincinnati skated to a scoreless tie, but that all changed in the second period. Florida went on a scoring frenzy, registering four goals in less than 10 minutes to take command.

Just over three minutes into the period, team captain Kevin Baker got the scoring started with his team-leading 41st goal of the season on the power play after taking a pass from Mathieu Roy.

Baker’s goal is cemented in Everblades lore as their all-time single-season leading scorer.

“Kevin really doesn’t care about that stuff,” said Cameron. “Kevin would be happy scoring only 25 goals if it meant playing into June.”

The Blades’ dominance continued just over four minutes later when Yannick Tifu fired the puck at Cyclone starting goaltender Ryan Nie (17 saves), who rebounded the puck to the stick of Noah Babin for a 2-0 lead.

Three minutes later, Brad Zanon found the net after Baker fired a perfect pass as Zanon charged the net, firing it top shelf for his first goal as an Everblade.

Nie was chased from the net shortly thereafter when Babin scored his second goal of the night with just under seven minutes to go in the contest.

Peter Metcalf finished out the scoring for the Blades with a third-period goal on a power play, assisted by Tifu and Baker.

Baker finished the night with one goal and three assists, while Metcalf’s goal made it four out of five goals scored by defensemen, something Cameron has been hoping to see all year.

“I’ve been expecting it all year,” Cameron said. “It hasn’t come as much as I would have thought. We have such good skaters I thought we would score more off the rush with our d-men joining in late.”

The Cyclones, who lead the American Conference North Division by one point over Elmira, entered the game with the highest scoring offense in the ECHL. They were shut out for the first time this season.

The Blades were 2-of-9 on the power play. the Cyclones finished 0-of-9.

Blades netminder Anton Khudobin posted his fourth shutout of the season, and the team’s eighth overall, turning away 22 shots in all.

The Everblades (34-12-2) and Cyclones (27-18-5) skate against each other Friday and Saturday nights at Germain Arena.