Perseverance and grit led the Florida Everblades to a successful start of the 2010-11 ECHL season Friday night at Germain Arena, a 3-2 shootout victory over the Gwinnett Gladiators.

The Everblades got off to a slow start finding themselves playing from behind just 1:15 into the new season. After a flurry of activity and early pressure by the Gladiators, Florida goaltender Bobby Goepfert was beaten by Aaron Bendickson.

The Blades rebounded from the early disappointment and tied the game five minutes later. Mike Kennedy spotted Mitch Fadden skating away over the blue line and fired a pass off the boards and Fadden beat Gwinnett netminder Chris Carrozzi (27 saves).

“They scored early and we didn’t stop,” Fadden said of his goal that got that Blades back in the contest. “We just kept going, and I got the breakaway pass and poked it in.”

“We started the game a little nervous,” said first-year Blades coach Greg Poss. “(Gwinnett) got that first early goal, but we didn’t panic. We settled down and got into our game.”

Taking the 1-1 tie into the first intermission, the Everblades looked to gain control 13 minutes into the second frame. Cedric Lalonde-McNicholl took a pass from d-man Bobby Raymond in front of the net and fired it past Carrozzi for the power-play goal and a 2-1 lead.

Mistakes heading into the third period cost the Everblades.

With just 15 seconds to go before second intermission, defenseman Phil Paquet took a roughing call that was compounded 20 seconds into the third period by Mike Egener, who joined Paquet in the box for slashing. With the two-man advantage, the Gladiators quickly capitalized, beating Goepfert (32 saves) to tie it at 2-2 just 1:30 into the final period of play.

“The last two minutes of the second period we got a little sloppy defensively,” said Poss. “We turned the puck over too much, and especially at that time of the game we have to be a lot better defensively. That led to the first penalty, and then the second (which lead to the second goal).”

The Blades had chances to get the victory in regulation with a pair of power-play opportunities.

Alexandre Imbeault and Francis Lemieux tried to hook up, but all were turned away by Carrozzi, who guaranteed his team would be leaving with at least a point on this night.

After a scoreless overtime, Goepfert dominated the shootout, turning away all of Gwinnett’s would-be scorers while Fadden and Imbeault converted to secure the win for the Everblades.

The Everblades and Gladiators meet again Saturday night at Germain Arena.