(Charlotte, NC - November 4)
- The Florida Everblades
opened a three-game road trip Wednesday in Charlotte as they began a two-game series with the Checkers.The game went to a shootout, where the Checkers prevailed to claim a 4-3 victory. It took eleven rounds of the shootout before Charlotte defenseman Julian Brouillette beat Everblades goalie Chris Beckford-Tseu for the game-winner.
Florida (3-4-1-1) three times overcame one-goal Charlotte leads to tie, but never had a lead in the contest. Beckford-Tseu made his second start of the season for Florida and played well making 35 saves. Jacob Micflikier, Milan Gajic and Brandon Buck scored for Florida. Matt Schepke had a pair of tallies for the Checkers with Jason Lawrence notching a single goal for Charlotte. Checkers goalie Billy Sauer picked up the win with 39 saves.
The Everblades dominated the first period but the Florida and Charlotte went scoreless. The Everblades outshot the Checkers 11-5 despite having to kill off two Charlotte powerplays.
After 33 minutes of scoreless hockey, the teams scored three goals in a 1:17 span, with the Checkers (4-1-1-0) netting two.
Schepke finally broke the scoreless tie for Charlotte at 13:34 in the second period when he knocked home a rolling puck on the doorstep in front of Beckford-Tseu, giving Charlotte a 1-0 lead.
The Everblades countered a minute and 42 seconds later when Milan Gajic broke by the Charlotte defense and pulled Sauer out of the net.
Micflikier took a perfect pass from Rob Hennigar and fired the puck into the open net to tie the game at 1-1.
The Checkers came right back 35 seconds later as Schepke scored his second of the game in a goalmouth scramble in front if Beckford-Tseu, and Charlotte regained the advantage at 2-1 after two peiriods.
The Everblades tied the game early in the third period as Gajic knocked home his first goal of the season at 2:41 to knot the contest at 2-2. Late in the period it appeared Charlotte had won it as rookie Jason Lawrence notched his first professional goal with just 3:25 left in regulation for a 3-2 Checkers lead.
But the Everblades still weren't finished. Buck tied the game once again just 25 seconds after the Lawrence goal, sending the game to the shootout where Charlotte prevailed.
Florida continues their three-game roadtrip Thrusday night, again playing he Checkers in Charlotte at 7:00 p.m.
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