Rabbits edge Blades 2-1
The Florida Everblades did something Saturday night they hadn’t done in a while. And they weren’t terribly happy about it.
Greenville scored two second-period goals to trim the Blades 2-1 at Germain Arena. The Swamp Rabbits earned a split in the two-game series between the ECHL South Division rivals.
The Blades’ nine-game streak without a regulation loss (8-0-0-1) came to an end.
“We hate losing and it’s not a good feeling,” Blades forward Brant Harris said. “It doesn’t get any easier whether it’s a month apart or the next day. We’re not too happy about this one.”
Florida still leads the ECHL South by eight points with Atlanta’s shootout loss to Idaho Saturday.
Anthony Peters was back in the nets after a night off for the Everblades. He wasn’t at his best, giving up two second-period goals on seven shots. While Greenville wasn’t getting a lot of chances (16 all night), several of the ones the Swamp Rabbits had were high-quality opportunities.
And, of all things, a bad skate played a role.
“We only gave up 16 shots,” Blades coach Greg Poss said. “It was a bad break when, twice (defenseman Mark) Nemec’s skate was defective and he fell down. So that was a little bit of bad luck. You have nights like that.”
With Rasmus Tirronen back down from the AHL, Poss plans to go back to alternating his goalies. Peters played 11 straight while Tirronen was with Charlotte.
“We probably played statistically better than in a lot of games the last couple of weeks,” Poss said.
“There were one or two games along the way (the streak) that we should have lost. It kind of caught up with us tonight. We play that game 10 times, we probably win it eight or nine times.”
Meanwhile, Florida couldn’t solve Swamp Rabbits goalie Mackenzie Skrapski after one early tally. It was just Skrapski’s third win in 10 games in the Greenville net (3-6-1).
“The effort was there,” Harris said. “There’s not much you can do when you’re making the right plays but you can’t buy one. We made the right plays but things weren’t going in. We’ve just got to regroup.”
The game ended with six Florida skaters against four, with Peters on the bench and the Blades on a power play for the final 44.5 seconds.
The Blades jumped out to the lead 3:31 into the game thanks to a 2-on-1 break. Matt Marquardt fed a pass to Jon DiSilvatore, who beat Skrapski on the glove side. It was DiSalvatore’s third goal in 13 games with the Blades. He also scored once for Springfield of the AHL.
Although Florida dominated the first period, nothing else got past Skrapski. The door was left open.
“We didn’t finish our chances,” Poss said.
With the Blades losing momentum after the first intermission, Greenville took advantage to knot the score at 1-1. Andrew Dommett scored his second of the year at 7:33 of the second period.
Before the period was done, the Swamp Rabbits had taken the lead. Defenseman Joe Houk scored with 3:45 remaining in the second, and Greenville went up 2-1.
“We probably deserved a better fate, but we’re missing some horses here,” Poss said.
The team’s top two centers, Ryan Martindale and Kevin Lynch, are on loan to the AHL. While that didn’t hurt the Blades on Friday, Saturday night was another matter.
“We have to have a good week of practice now,” Poss said. “We leave Wednesday. Two really tough games in Atlanta and South Carolina. It’s a battle to make the playoffs.”
Harris added, “It’s getting tight down to the end for playoff spots. Every point is huge. They’re definitely going to be big games.”
The Everblades have games at Atlanta and South Carolina next weekend before returning home Feb. 10 against Orlando, followed by Elmira on Feb. 12-13.