With their top three goal scorers on call-ups to the AHL, the Florida Everblades had difficulty finding a grove Friday night, inevitably leading to a 4-1 loss to the Charlotte Checkers at Germain Arena.

Not helping their offensive issues, the Blades spent much of the first half in the penalty box. Despite early sloppy play the Blades managed to grind out a scoreless period with their division rival.

“I took no issue with the penalties,” said Blades coach Malcolm Cameron. “I think we deserved those penalties, but for the amount of time we spent in their offensive zone in this game and to only get three power-plays ourselves, I take issue with that.”

All the scoring came in the second period.

Checkers center Jean-Philipp Chabot find the net first, beating Blades netminder Mike Morrison (19 saves) two minutes in. Kenny Roche then beat Morrison for the eventual game winner.

“The second period we played hard. I have no issue with the effort our guys showed all night, but we are missing a lot of fire power,” said Cameron.

Defenseman A.J. Thelen got Florida back in the fray with less than 4 1/2 minutes to go in the second after firing a Jordan Morrison rebound past Checkers goalie Ryan Munce (32 saves).

Florida did have chances to tie in the third period, but their lack of offense showed as Munce stopped all shots he faced in the final period while Charlotte added two more goals to secure the victory.

“The only thing negative I can say about the game is the number of missed opportunities we didn’t (capitalize on) and the number times we missed the net,” said Cameron.

The Everblades (12-10-4) get another chance at revenge against the Checkers (13-6-3) Saturday night, but need to find offense somewhere if they hope to avoid losing two in a row to a divisional opponent.