Blades stretch streak to 6 straight
The Florida Everblades made it six wins in a row Wednesday night, holding off division rival Gwinnett 5-4 at Germain Arena.
During the recent hot streak, the Everblades were the ones to get on the scoreboard first, taking early leads and making teams chase them. On Wednesday, that script was reversed as the Gladiators jumped out to a two-goal lead less than 10 minutes into the contest.
The Blades responded before the end of the period, getting a goal by Alex Lavoie, who tipped in a shot by Jeff Costello.
A three-goal second period by the Blades put the game away and sealed the win.
The scoring barrage started 4:30 into the second frame when John McInnis tallied his seventh score upon receiving a near perfect cross ice pass from Mike Aviani. A little over three minutes later, Kevin Lynch tipped in his second tally of the year off a shot by Mike Little. Evan Bloodoff rounded out the scoring moments later, sending the Blades into the final intermission with a 4-2 lead.
Florida made it 5-2 with a power play goal by Arleem Sergeev, less than two minutes into the final period before the Gladiators mounted a furious comeback, scoring twice on Blades netminder Daniel Altshuller (27 saves). The first, a power play, and the second moments later near the midway point of the period.
“We have a lot of adversity right now, with having to play forwards on (defense) and only five active defensemen,” said Everblades coach Greg Poss. “We thought we had adversity when we got down two goals, but we kept battling back. I thought we played an excellent second period, but as we see a three-goal lead is never safe with us.”
The Everblade defense clamped down from there and secured the win.
The Blades (18-4) face the Gladiatosr again Friday night at Germain Arena, their last home game of 2014.