The Florida Everblades simply were looking to improve on their effort and consistency and not head into the playoffs on a down note.

Saturday’s 4-3 shootout win at lease sends the Everblades into the playoffs with a season-ending victory over the Charlotte Checkers at Germain Arena.

Through two periods it looked as if the Everblades would give a full effort and consistency on both sides of the puck. Unfortunately, the effort wasn’t there in the third period, allowing Charlotte to force overtime and a shootout that took six rounds for the Blades eventually to win it.

“The first two periods were dynamite,” said Everblades coach Malcolm Cameron. “I think we got a little ahead of ourselves in the third period. We just have to make it simpler on ourselves. The pressure is going to be that much greater Tuesday night when we start the playoffs.”

As in the Blades’ loss Friday, the Checkers were first to get on the scoreboard, beating goalie Chris Beckford-Tseu (29 saves) 13 minutes into the game. As a whole, though, the Blades outplayed their divisional foe in the period and it carried over into the second frame. Florida went on a scoring spree, notching three goals on Checkers goaltender Garrett Zemlak (35 saves) to take control of the contest.

More importantly was the special teams play. Although they gave up one power play goal, the Blades killed off a two-man advantage early in the period while contributing two of their three goals on the power play.

Despite the improvements over Friday night with the win, it still was not what Cameron would have preferred.

“It would have been better to win in regulation. There are no shootouts in the playoffs,” he said.

Players, however, did see the importance of the win.

“It wasn’t the third period that we wanted, but it was still good,” said Kevin Baker whose season overall isn’t up to the standard he set as last season’s league MVP. “You always want to win your last game, but there are still little things that we have to work on (for the playoffs).”

Among those are the Blades must focus on turnovers and making the right play when teams are pressuring them.

“We make bad decisions sometimes when that happens,” he said, “We limit those and we capitalize on our opponent’s mistakes and we will be in good shape through the playoffs.”

Those playoffs begin Tuesday and Wednesday at Germain Arena as the Everblades, who were 0-2 in against the Elmira Jackals during the regular season, host the Jackals in the first round.