The Florida Everblades dropped their third straight game to the Cincinnati Cyclones, a 6-5 shootout loss Saturday night at Germain Arena.

“We didn’t play great defensively, and we definitely made too many mistakes in that area,” said Everblades coach Greg Poss. “In these situations, where we are so short manned, it is just about battling and finding a way to scratch out points, which we did do tonight – everyone did battle really hard, but we just made too many mistakes defensively.”

As with Friday night’s contest, the Everblades got on the scoreboard first when Alexandre Imbeault got his first goal of the night, taking a cross-ice feed from Francis Lemieux less than 90 seconds into the game.

Cincinnati had other intentions and three minutes later tied the game on a power play, when Kevin Roeder fired a wrist shot that beat starting Blades goaltender Bobby Goepfert.

Looking to retake the lead, the Blades pressed back, but a turnover in the neutral zone led to a breakaway goal for Cincinnati, giving the visiting team a 2-1 lead heading into the second period.

Cincinnati took a two-goal lead seven minutes into the second period before Everblades defenseman Bobby Raymond stuffed home a rebound.

The Everblades trailed 4-2 before they finally found some offense in the third period. Led by the return of Alexandre Imbeault, who scored his second of the night, the Blades scored three times, but the Cyclones refused to go away, answering each time the home team scored to force overtime.

“Having Imbeault come back tonight really helped our offense, and guys like Francis Lemieux really stepped it up on that line,” said Poss.

The Blades survives a two-man advantage in overtime, only to lose in the shootout.

The Everb lades (21-16-2) hit the road for 4 games next week, all against divisional opponents.