Blades fall in shootout
Just two games into the new season, the Florida Everblades found themselves needing overtime and a shootout to put away a pesky South Carolina Stingrays team Saturday night despite dominating in overtime. The Blades (1-1) lost 2-1 to their divisional rival.
“I thought it was a really good hockey game,” said Blades coach Greg Poss. “I thought both teams had good chances, both goaltenders played excellent and I like the way we worked. Obviously we have some things to work on, but in general I thought we played a good game.”
The longstanding divisional foes skated to a scoreless tie through two periods of play with both goaltenders dominating play. South Carolina drew first blood, beating Florida goaltender Allen York (17 saves) only 4:14 into the final period play.
Florida responded immediately. After winning the ensuing faceoff, Matt Mangene took the puck and flipped a wrist shot home, after skating out ahead of the Stingrays defense.
“I thought it was a 50-50 game,” said Poss. “I thought (Carolina) had some really good chances in the second period. York played well and we had to kill a couple of penalties. In the third period we had a couple of power play chances and couldn’t convert.
The Blades dominated the overtime period, spending the majority of the extra five minutes peppering the Stingrays goaltender, only to be stymied each time.
In the shootout, Adam Brace was the lone scorer for the Blades while two Stingrays beat York for the win.
The Blades next face the Orlando Solar Bears on Friday Oct. 24, at Germain Arena.