ESTERO, Fla. — On Friday night, a record-breaking 7,855 fans packed Hertz Arena to watch the Florida Everblades sweep the Idaho Steelheads to win back-to-back Kelly Cup titles on their home ice. Now, four days later, the public was invited back to the arena to celebrate with the team.

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“Lots of fans wanted to party with the Kelly Cup,” said Everblades broadcaster Jake Maurice. “We let the players have their time on the ice, now it’s all about the fans who supported us so well this season.”

The Everblades attribute their success to those who were there to cheer for them from the stands. For the second year in a row, the cowbell-ringing, rally towel-whirling fans in green and blue got to party right where all the action took place.

“It’s pretty cool to be here where the players skate around and won and where they’ve won the Kelly Cup back to back,” said Dylan Pfenninger.

“Look how many people are here to support us and it’s been so cool to see all the fans and how much it means to everybody,” said Everblades captain Ben Masella. “It’s been really special. Everybody’s so grateful, it means the world to us just to have the support all year and to see how much it means to them, it’s worth everything.”

On top of free food, drinks, inflatable games and music by DJ Big Mama, fans were able to take pictures with the Kelly Cup itself and meet their favorite players.

“Lots of kids want autographs and just want to take pictures and say thank you,” said Masella. “So it’s awesome and these kids look up to us and it’s something they can hang their hat up and think about at night so it’s really cool.”

“It’s an awesome give back for us because we’ve put into it all year too and for them to come out here and say thank you for us, it just makes it that much better,” said Carolyn Kelly.

Experiencing something like this two years in a row makes the goal for next year pretty clear.

As Masella said, “three-peat coming up!”