Late flurry lifts Everblades 5-3
The Florida Everblades played their first home game of the season Friday night, taking a hard fought 5-3 victory over the Charlotte Checkers.
“We had some pretty dynamite chances to blow this one (open early),” said Everblades coach Malcolm Cameron. “We hit a couple of posts and the goaltender made couple of great saves We played a really smart intelligent type of game where we didn’t give up a lot of quality scoring chances.”
Florida (2-1-1) jumped out to a quick two-goal lead in the first period.
Cleve Kinley was first to score after taking a Milan Gajic feed and beating Checkers goalie Matt Zaba (31 saves) nine minutes into the opening frame. About four minutes later, another Florida newcomer, defenseman Elgin Reid, made it 2-0, and the Everblades looked poised for a blowout.
“I thought we certainly played well enough to have more than a 2-0 lead heading into the third period, but, we didn’t,” said Cameron.
The score would remain 2-0 until the Checkers (1-1) decided to make a game of it, scoring a pair of goals on Florida net minder Mike Morrison (24 saves) 3 1/2 minutes apart in the final period to tie it 2-2.
“We changed the way we played (in that first five minutes),” Cameron said of the defensive letdown. “The good thing this time was that instead of letting it drag out for 20 minutes we nipped it in the bud and got back to playing pretty darn good hockey.”
The offensive machine wasn’t to be denied as Brandon Buck put the Blades up for good two minutes after Charlotte’s tying goal.
Jacob Micflikier added his second goal less than 90 seconds later, guaranteeing the nearly 6,400 fans attending the opener go home happy.
The division rivals play a rematch Saturday night at Germain Arena.