ECHL Florida Everblades

Blades Come-Back Cut Short; Fall 5-4 to Greenville

November 11, 2010 - ECHL (ECHL)
Florida Everblades News Release


GREENVILLE, SC - The Florida Everblades (7-5-0) almost pulled off their second straight three-goal, third period come-back, but a four-goal first period outburst by the Greenville Road Warriors (5-3-1) proved to be too much as the Road Warriors held on for a 5-4 win on Thursday night at the BI-LO Center.

The Road Warriors jumped on the Everblades in the first period scoring four times over the final 13 minutes of the opening frame to grab a 4-0 lead before the Everblades answered back with a late tally of their own sending the teams to the first intermission with Greenville leading 4-1.

The Road Warriors opened the scoring at 7:34 while short-handed when Julien Brouillette flung a shot from the left boards that sailed over the glove of Everblades net-minder Jaroslav Janus and into the net. Just 26 seconds later as the penalty to Marc-Olivier Vallerand expired the puck slid out to the neutral zone where Vallerand broke in alone on Janus before lifting a back-hand shot from the right side of the crease into the net for the 2-0 lead.

The Road Warriors extended their lead to three at16:21 on Connor Sheilds' second goal of the season before opening the four-goal lead at 18:10 when Sean Berkstresser tipped home his first goal of the year from the left side of the crease to complete a nice passing play.

The Everblades trimmed the lead back to three on Mathieu Roy's fifth goal of the year at 18:34. After taking an outlet pass from Ross Carlson, Roy fired a slap shot from just inside the blue-line that beat Road Warriors goalie Nic Riopel on the glove side.

The second period got off to a good start for the Everblades as Matt Pistilli fired a slap shot from outside the Greenville blueline that snuck past Riopel just 38 seconds into the frame to cut the Greenville lead to 4-2. The goal, Pistilli's fifth of the season was assisted by Francis Lemieux.

The Road Warriors however found the back of the net to recapture their three-goal lead at 11:28 when Shane Harper's wrap around shot from the bottom of the left circle found its way past Bobby Goepfert who came on to relieve Janus at the start of the second period.

For the second straight game it seemed that the Everblades would find a way to manufacture a three-goal third period come back after tallying a pair of goals in the first seven minutes of the third period. Alex Imbeault cut the Road Warrior lead to 5-3 at 3:06 after firing home a shot from the left circle. Imbeault's team leading 10th goal came off a beautiful cross ice pass from Lemieux. Mitch Fadden saw his point-scoring streak extend to nine games with the second assist on the marker.

Just over three minutes later, the Everblades trimmed the lead down to one when Fadden ripped home a quick shot from left circle at 6:17. Fadden picked up his fifth goal of the season after taking a quick pass from Imbeault who was camped out behind the Greenville goal. Elgin Reid picked up an assist on the tally as well.

From that point on the Everblades kept the pressure on, out-shooting Greenville 13-3 in the period, but could not find a way to get the equalizer past Riopel.

In goal Goepfert (4-3-0) suffered the loss despite only allowing one goal on the 12 shots he faced over the infal two periods. Janus finished the game with no decision after allowing the four goals on 12 shots in the first period. Riopel picked up the win to improve to 5-2-1 stopping 31 of 35 shots.

On the power play, the Everblades finished the night 0-of-5, while Greenville closed out the game 0-of-4.

Individual tickets to all 2010-11 Florida Everblades home games are on sale now! Tickets are available at the TIB Bank Box Office Monday - Friday from 10:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m. and on Saturday from 10:00 a.m. - 2 p.m. Fans can also purchase tickets through TicketMaster by logging onto www.ticketmaster.comor calling 800-745-3000.

The Everblades return to action on Friday, November 12 when they travel to Greenville to take on the Road Warriors at 7:05 p.m. from the BI-LO Center. Visit www.floridaeverblades.comand www.germainarena.comfor more information on ticket packages, pricing and upcoming Germain Arena events.

Bud Light 3 Stars:

1 - Marc-Olivier Vallerand - GRV

2 - Conner Shields - GRV

3 - Alex Imbeault - FLA

Check out the Florida Everblades Statistics



ECHL Stories from November 11, 2010


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