Everblades notch two victories over Checkers
The Florida Everblades got the new year started off the way they wanted – with two impressive wins against one of their biggest rivals, the Charlotte Checkers.
After their second win, 4-2 over the Checkers Saturday night, coach Malcolm Cameron had a lot to be happy about with his team.
“We have injuries to four or five defensemen,” said Cameron, “but we found a way to gut it out. We got a lot of minutes out of Earnie Hartlieb (on defense), and Brad Zanon who has an injured shoulder but played anyway. There were just a lot of great individual efforts out there.”
Cameron had good reason to be so proud of his team after their second straight victory over the Checkers.
Not only did injuries force Hartlieb to switch from his usual forward position to defense, but the referees seemed to have it in for the Everblades.
The Everblades faced 5-on 3-shorthanded situations nine times between the two games against the Checkers, it was something that left Cameron scratching his head.
“That will be something I address with the league,” Cameron said of the lopsided nature in which the referee’s seem to call both contests. “There is not that much of a disciplinary problem with our hockey game and I think (referee Barry Pocharma) had some personal things that he didn’t like about our hockey club and it showed in his judgment.”
Despite the seemingly onesided officiating, the Blades skated almost two identical games this weekend.
On Friday, they opened with three quick goals in the first period and carried that start to a 6-3 win.
They started off equally fast on Saturday. The one difference, though, was that it was nearly a one-man show in the first period of Saturday night’s contest with Kevin Baker scoring the first two goals exactly three minutes apart from each other.
On Friday night, the Blades defense clamped down in the third period, allowing only 10 shots on goal to the Checkers, who had the momentum heading into the final period.
Saturday night’s defensive effort was equally impressive allowing only seven shots on goal.
When it was all said and done, the only thing that mattered was the two wins and the three-point cushion the Blades build over South Carolina in the South Division.
The Blades (21-8-2) are off until this weekend when they host the Mississippi Seawolves Jan. 9-10 at Germain Arena.