Royals snap Blades’ unbeaten streak
The Florida Everblades returned to Germain Arena Wednesday night looking to clinch a division title against the Reading Royals, but the Royals had other intentions, delaying Florida’s plans with a 5-2 defeat.
After going 14 straight games without a loss, Blades coach Greg Poss was not happy.
“We got exactly what we deserved,” he said.
Florida drew first blood less than six minutes into the game when newcomer Spencer Pommels tallied his second goal in an Everblades uniform, scoring with a wrist shot from 35 feet. Reading responded five minutes later, beating Florida netminder Matt Ginn (26 saves), eventually sending the teams into the first intermission tied at 1-1.
Reading took its first lead just 2:39 into the second frame, but the Blades responded a little over two minutes later as Matt Marquardt sent his 16th goal of the year home after taking a pass from Mitch Wahl, tying the contest at 2-2. That was all the typically potent Blades offense could muster.
“We played really well for a long time,” said Poss. “After awhile, you think it’s going to be easy and you think you don’t have to work as hard. We were playing a team that was trying to find themselves and they just outworked us tonight.
“We got exactly what we deserved,” he added. “We didn’t deserve to win this game. We didn’t work hard enough to win this game, and we needed to lose that game because if that’s how hard we are going to work, we aren’t going to win.”
Despite starting the third period with one minute left of a carryover power play, the Everblades never were able to gain any traction against their opponent, which scored three times in the final period to put the Blades away.
“We just can’t go out there and expect to win a game easy, play on the perimeter and play soft … (Losing) was bound to happen eventually, but we didn’t deserve to win. We got outworked,” said Poss.
The Everblades (46-21) host the same Royals Friday and South Carolina on Saturday.