Everblades stumble 5-4
Inconsistent effort has been the downfall of the Florida Everblades all season. Effort wasn’t lacking Friday night as a furious third period comeback by the Blades fell short in a 5-4 loss to the South Carolina Stingrays at Germain Arena.
“Overall we didn’t play a bad game,” said defenseman Elgin Reid, who scored the Blades’ final goal. “I think it’s not always going to be your night, and that is kind of what we are chalking up (tonight) as.”
The Stingrays jumped all over the Blades early, scoring the first goal on netminder Mike Zacharias (13 saves) just 1:09 into the first period. The Stingrays made it 2-0 near the midway mark before Bobby Raymond tallied his eighth goal of the season to pull Florida within 2-1.
The Stingrays scored three times in the second period, but the Blades (37-30-4) refused to go quietly. Sensing the urgency, the Blades dominated the third period from the first drop of the puck.
Where the Stingrays capitalized on every Blades mistake earlier in the game, the Blades returned the favor in the third period. With a pair of goals less than 30 seconds apart in the first five minutes, the Blades came roaring back.
Ten minutes later, Reid added his ninth marker of the season, and the Blades were in position to steal a win. With less than two minutes remaining, and on a power play, the Blades pulled their goalie to gain a two-man advantage, but it was too late.
“We don’t like the result, but we actually played well,” said Blades coach Greg Poss. “You never like to lose, but I can live with it because you play that game 10 times and we win nine of them.”
The Blades and Stingrays (36-29-6) go at it in the final game of the regular season Saturday night at Germain Arena.