Stingrays spoil Blades’ return home
The Florida Everblades didn’t bring their best game to Germain Arena Wednesday night, and it showed.
A three-goal second period lifted the South Carolina Stingrays past the Blades 4-2 Wednesday night, handing Florida its first home loss of the season. The Blades, after a 3-0 start, have lost three of four.
South Carolina, defending Eastern Conference champions, entered the night in an early-season funk that had the Stingrays in last place in the ECHL South. It was the Blades that had look of a team out of sync. Passes didn’t click, shots weren’t followed up.
“I wasn’t at all happy with our effort and execution from a lot of our players,” Everblades coach Greg Poss said. “To win a hockey game you have put a lot more into it than that.”
The absence of two injured forwards, rookie Brendan O’Donnell and Ethan Warek, may have had something to do with that.
Replacing O’Donnell, second on the team with eight points coming in, and Werek were two rookies seeing their first professional ice time.
For one rookie, Maxime St. Cyr, it was a night to remember. St. Cyr took Evan Bloodoff’s pass in the slot and beat South Carolina goaltender Vitek Vanacek for his first professional goal on his first professional shot.
“My linemates, Bloody and (Matt) Willows, did a great job. I got the rebound,” St. Cyr said. “It was my first pro goal. I cannot ask for better.”
St. Cyr, whose goal gave Florida a 1-0 lead in the first period, scored 54 times in junior hockey last season.
“St. Cyr was good tonight,” Poss said. “He did a lot of good things for us. He knows what to do out there. If we have had all 16 skaters with that kind of awareness we would have had a lot better result.”
Jeff Jones also made his professional debut for Florida on Wednesday.
Vanacek, a standout in the preseason Tampa Bay Lightning Prospect Tournament at Germain Arena in September, stopped 25 of 27 shots for his first win in goal.
“I thought South Carolina played very well tonight, and to win a game like that we’ve got to bring our ‘A’ game,” Poss said. “For us to bring our ‘C’ game, it’s tough to win a hockey game.”
The Blades struggled as much on defense they did on offense.
“You can have a bad night with the puck,” Poss said. “You’ve got to be good defensively every night. We’re just soft.”
A puck-handling mistake by the Blades in the second period turned the tide in the Stingrays’ favor. Carolina’s Derek DeBlois poked the puck away from Willows right in front of the goal and past goalie Daniel Altshuller to tie the game.
“The first goal was terrible,” Poss said. “Why are we skating with the puck in front of our goal like that so they can knock it off our stick and into the goal?”
The Stingrays took the lead later in the second when Austin Fyten beat Altshuller. Kyle Kraemer made it 3-1 Stingrays before the second period ended.
Kevin Montgomery scored a spectacular unassisted goal short-handed to bring the Blades within 3-2 early in the final period. It is his third of the season, tying him with three others for the team goals lead.
Florida pulled Altshuller trailing 3-2 with 1:31 to play, trying to get the equalizer, but couldn’t get anything else past Vanacek. Joey Leach scored an empty-netter with 8.3 seconds left for the final margin.
Altshuller took his first loss (3-1-0) of the season, giving up three goals on 24 shots.
The Everblades’ power play entered the game second on the ECHL, having scored at least one power-play goal in each of their first six games. That streak came to an end Wednesday, with Florida going 0-for-4 with the man advantage.
“If we’d have scored a power-play goal, we would have come out with points tonight,” Poss said.
The teams meet again at 7:30 p.m. Friday at Germain Arena.