Everblades rally, retain first place
First place still belongs to the Florida Everblades.
The Blades got solid play on defense and from goalie Andrew Peters, not to mention two late goals Sunday, to blank the South Carolina Stingrays 2-0 at Germain Arena.
Both goals came in the last 5:40 of play, Kevin Lynch’s icebreaker and Corey Cowick’s empty-netter.
The win snaps the Stingrays’ five-game winning streak, a run which had pulled them into a tie with the Everblades for the lead in the ECHL South Division standings. Two of those five wins came on the Germain Arena ice.
“We really played well defensively tonight,” Blades coach Greg Poss said. “We gave up just 17 shots last night, 15 tonight. They have a real high-powered offense, probably one of the best lineups in the league. We worked hard the whole game and were rewarded by that nice goal by Kevin Lynch.”
Make no mistake. The Everblades needed this one. They had seen a seven-point division lead disappear over the previous two weeks, and were threatened with falling out of first place for the first time all season.
So, it was almost a playoff game for the Blades.
“For us it was,” Poss said, “playing a very good team. I thought the last couple of nights we were too lax defensively and made too many mistakes. Tonight we were a lot better.”
With the victory, Florida leads South Carolina by two points (72-70) and third-place Atlanta by seven. The Blades have two games in hand over the Stingrays and one over the Gladiators.
Florida plays the Stingrays two more times, March 18-19, on the road.
“At this point we just needed a win,” Poss said. “We needed it for the confidence, and for the guys to see if they went out there and paid the price and paid attention to the details, they’d be successful. It did a lot for our confidence with a real good Toledo team coming in here.”
Rookie Peters picked up his 21st win of the season with his fourth shutout this season, his second against South Carolina. He made 15 saves.
The minutes kept ticking away with matching zeroes on the scoreboard. One period, two periods in the books, and the third winding down. Goalies Mark Dekanich of South Carolina (21 saves) and Peters kept their nets clean.
“We were playing a great game up to that point,” Lynch said. “We really didn’t give up a lot the entire game. I think that was coach’s strategy tonight. We don’t care if we only get one or two chances as long as we aren’t giving up chances on our end. Eventually one will go in.”
Finally, with just 5:40 to play, Lynch took a sharp pass from Jon DiSalvatore, skated in on Dekanich and hit paydirt. It is Lynch’s 14th goal of the season.
“It was a huge relief,” Lynch said. “It was big for our team. We’d been down the last couple of games and need this one win big. It was such a team effort, but it was nice to see that goal go in.”
It was a second chance for Lynch, who was unable to cash in an opportunity earlier on pass from DiSalvatore.
“I think I rushed the first opportunity,” Lynch admitted. “I had more time than I thought. I tried to go five hole (between the goalie’s legs), but the puck hopped over my stick a little bit. Jon made a great play. He was great all night long.”
South Carolina kept the pressure on late. The Blades went a man down with just over three minutes to play when Corey Syvret was called for tripping. Dekanich went off for an extra skater before the penalty expired. It backfired. Matt Willows corralled a long shot down ice and passed out in front of the empty Stingrays net to Cowick for the clincher with 10 seconds to play.
Mark Nemec went to the penalty box early in the third period for a hard shot on South Carolina’s Austin Fyten. Nemec got a five-minute major for boarding. The Blades killed off the five-minute penalty with one of their best penalty-killing efforts of the year.
“That’s one of the things we worked on this past week. We need to be better on the PK,” Lynch said. “I think our PK was phenomenal tonight.”
Lynch said the penalty kill was a momentum-changer. It was huge. It was the huge momentum swing of the game. I think the third period was pretty much even up until that point. I think we gained a little momentum and it sunk their team a little bit.”
Poss agrees: “That five-minute penalty kill was huge for us.”
Later in the third, Peters stoned David Pacan on a break to keep the game scoreless.
“The couple of chances we gave up, that breakaway, Petey made a huge save for us,” Poss said. “He’s been there all year for us when we really need him, and he did the same tonight.”
Florida struggled on the power play, failing to mount a serious threat in its first three chances with the man advantage. There was one solid flurry on the fourth opportunity early in the final period, but nothing got past Dekanich.
Florida takes on its last non-division foe of the regular season this week, but it’ll hardly be a break in the schedule. Toledo, first in the ECHL North Division and second overall in the Eastern Conference, comes to Germain Arena for games Wednesday, Friday and Saturday.
“They’re every bit as good as South Carolina. They’re one of the best teams in the league, and it’ll be a great challenge for us,” Poss said.