Everblades drop 4th straight
The Florida Everblades went looking to turn around a three-game losing streak Wednesday night at Germain Arena, but their skid continued with their fourth straight loss, a 6-3 setback at the hands of the Greenville Road Warriors.
“Lack of paying attention to details and being committed on defense,” said Everblades coach Greg Poss.
The Warriors got off to a hot start, scoring on Blades netminder Pat Nagle (3 saves) just 1:05 into the game. Nagle was pulled in favor of Billy Sauer after surrendering another goal with just 6:43 played in the first period.
“We just gave them two gifts,” said Poss, “Those goals just can’t go in. We just gave (2 goals) to them because we were careless and didn’t commit to defense.”
The change in goal seemed to spark the Everblades, but all of their best efforts were turned away in the period. Their inability to get past the Warrior goalie eventually powered the visiting team to their third goal in the opening period, less than three minutes before intermission.
The Blades tried to get back into the contest in the second period, and finally got past the Warrior goalie four minutes into the period as Mike Ratchuk fired home a rebounded shot by Cedric McNicoll. The momentum was short-lived as the Warriors won the ensuing faceoff and made it a three-goal margin 28 seconds later.
The Everblades eventually made a game of it, scoring twice in the first four minutes of the third period. The first came on a nice feed to McNicoll from linemate Scott Pitt.
Brayden Irwin later tallied his fourth goal of the year, and the Blades were within a goal with enough time to steal the win.
Any hopes of a win were dashed less than six minutes later when Sauer (25 saves) surrendered his third goal of the night.
The Blades (21-18-3) and Warriors skate again Thursday night in the second of three games this week.