A disappointing performance led by poor special teams effort Saturday night helped hand the Florida Everblades a 5-3 defeat at the hands of the Gwinnett Gladiators at Germain arena.

Everblades coach Greg Poss didn’t see it that way,, though.

“I think the story of tonight’s game, is when you play as individuals in a team sport you have no chance of winning, and that’s what we did from the start,” said Poss.

The Gladiators hit the ice looking to set an early tone. The Everblades held their own through the first 7:30 until a holding penalty on Francis Lemieux at the 7:40 mark gave the Gladiators the opportunity they needed, and capitalized just 14 seconds into the first power-play of the game. Gladiator Andy Brandt beat Blades netminder Bobby Goepfert (30 saves).

Gwinnett widened their lead 6 1/2 minutes later to 2-0 when Goepfert was beaten again, this time by Tim Miller.

Following Gwinnett’s second goal, the Blades picked up the pace. Their hard work in the final seven minutes of the period led to Lemieux tallying his first goal of the season after firing home a Mathieu Roy shot that rebounded off Gwinnett goalie Billy Sauer (25 saves) back to Lemieux’s stick.

The Blades (1-1) tried to get back into it early in the second period, but sloppy play on both the penalty kill and the power play cost them dearly. The Gladiators scored shorthanded and with the man advantage to put the game out of reach. Making the Blades’ two late third-period goals meaningless.

“We need to take this lesson with us (on the road),” said Poss. “We need to learn from this game.”

Poss did see a little bit of a silver lining in the loss.

“The good thing is, we didn’t lay down, we scored a couple of goals late,” Poss said. “The good thing is its early in the season and there are definitely some lessons we need to learn. I think we learned a good one tonight – play as a team, not individuals.”

The Blades embark on their first road trip of the year with games Thursday and Friday with their newest divisional foe the Greenville Road Warriors in Greenville, N.C.