ECHL Florida Everblades

Blades down 0-2 in series after falling to Columbia 3-1

April 11, 2008 - ECHL (ECHL)
Florida Everblades News Release


ESTERO, FL - The Florida Everblades (0-2) suffered the second straight heart-breaking loss to Columbia (2-0) on Friday night after the Inferno battled from behind to win 3-1, and head back home with a 2-games-to-0 lead in the best-of-five South Division Quarter Final series.

After falling in overtime in game 1, the Everblades came out strong in game 2 throwing the body to help create offensive chances. Just as they did two nights ago, the Everblades scored the game's first goal off the stick of Kirk MacDonald. Just after a power play came to an end, the Everblades cycled the puck along the left boards where eventually Derek Damon held the disc behind the Columbia goal. After looking out front, Damon fed a soft pass to MacDonald who tapped it in past Inferno net-minder Todd Ford at 11:08 of the first period.

Late in the first period, things got nasty between the two teams when MacDonald was whistled for a double-minor attempted spearing penalty and Columbia's Jeff Miles was tagged with a gross misconduct spearing penalty which resulted in a five minute penalty, and a game misconduct for Miles.

The Everblades however were unable to take advantage of the power play, which actually began early in the second period. So despite going 0-for-5 on the power play to that point in the game, the Everblades still held a 1-0 advantage. Once again the similarities between the first two games of the series came out again as Columbia tied the game late in the second period as they had in game 1. This time it was Tyler Doig who took advantage of a failed Everblades clearing attempt to wrist a shot up over the glove of Everblades goaltender Kevin Nastiuk at 15:13.

However, that is where the similarities ended as 2:20 later, the Inferno grabbed the lead for good by cashing in on their only power play of the night. Daniel Sparre was the beneficiary after taking a nice back-hand pass from Steve McJannet and one-timing a shot between the pads of Nastiuk from the bottom of the right circle at 17:33.

As the third period began, the Everblades made a goaltending change as David Shantz replaced Nastiuk between the pipes. The Inferno though, held the lead throughout the third period although they were out-shot 12-6 by Florida. Ford held tough making some big saves in the closing moments while the Everblades had Shantz pulled for the extra attacker, and eventually Columbia worked the puck free and MacFaulker sealed the win with an empty net goal with two seconds remaining in the contest.

Nastiuk (0-2) was the goaltender of record allowing the two goals on 15 shots over the two periods. Shantz finished the game stopping all six shots he faced in the third period. Ford improved to 2-0 in the post season after stopping 36 of 37 Florida shots.

On the power play, the Everblades closed out night 0-for-6 while Columbia went 1-for-1.

Experience the excitement of the Everblades 10th Anniversary season! The Everblades continue the Kelly Cup Playoffs on Saturday, April 12 when they travel to Columbia to take in the Inferno for Game 3 of the South Division Quarter Finals at 7:05 p.m. from the Carolina Coliseum. Visit www.floridaeverblades.com and www.germainarena.com for more information on ticket packages, pricing and upcoming Germain Arena events.

Stars:

1) Todd Ford - CBA

2) Daniel Sparre - CBA

3) Tyler Doig - CBA

Check out the Florida Everblades Statistics



ECHL Stories from April 11, 2008


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