Blades score OT victory over Bears
Saturday night proved that wins could be tough to come by as The Florida Everblades enter the stretch run to the playoffs. After holding three separate two-goal leads over the Orlando Solar Bears at Germain Arena, the Blades needed overtime and a shootout to get the outright 6-5 win.
The Everblades jumped out to an early lead over the Bears when Steven Whitney and Brant Harris scored for the Blades within the first 14 minutes of the game. A bad turnover by the Blades with less than two minutes to go resulted in the divisional rivals entering the first intermission separated by just one goal, despite Florida dominating the first 17 minutes of hockey.
Six minutes into the second period, Harris’ second goal of the night off a pass from Jesse Graham allowed Florida to retake control temporarily. Orlando came right back, beating Blades net minder Andy Isles (30 saves) three minutes later to get back within a goal of the home team.
Florida regained their two-goal lead when team captain Jordan Henry scored his second goal of the year with eight minutes to play. Orlando refused to go away, and scored twice more in the final three minutes.
“I liked our energy and our physical effort,” said Blades coach Greg Poss. “We have a lot of moving parts right now and you can see that we are having trouble gelling and playing a team game, which is leading to too many scoring chances against (us). Obviously, we can’t afford to give up five goals, especially those ones at the end of the period.”
Matt Marquardt’s seventh goal of the season broke the tie with less than 30 seconds left in the second period, setting up an exciting third where Orlando scored the tying goal near the midway point to force a scoreless overtime and the shootout. Marquardt’s scond goal of the night was the difference maker in securing the win for the Everblades.
Florida (32-17) stays in town this week with three games at Germain Arena, starting with the Gwinnett Gladiators Wednesday night.