ECHL Florida Everblades

'Blades end home-stand with 4-1 loss to South Carolina

Published on October 25, 2008 under ECHL (ECHL)
Florida Everblades News Release


ESTERO, FL - The Florida Everblades (2-2-0) ended their season-opening four-game homestand with a disappointing 4-1 loss to the South Carolina Stingrays (2-1-0) on Saturday night at Germain Arena. The 'Rays rode the first career hat-trick by rookie Michael Dubuc and strong goaltending down the stretch by Josh Johnson to the victory.

From the start, the Stingrays came out strong looking to avenge their 5-3 loss to the Everblades on Friday night. The Stingrays peppered Everblades goalie David Leggio throughout the night finishing the contest with a shot advantage of 46-28.

South Carolina fired 16 first period shots to Florida's six and opened the game's scoring with Dubuc's first tally. The goal came with the Stingrays on the power play at 13:22. Dubuc took a pass at the bottom of the right circle and snapped a sharp angle shot that Leggio appeared to stop, however the puck trickled between his pads and across the goal line.

Holding a 1-0 lead entering the second period, the Stingrays tacked on two more goals by Dubuc in the middle stanza. Dubuc's second goal came at 9:43 on a scramble for a loose puck in the slot. The rookie finally got his stick on it before lifting the puck into the upper left corner of the net for a 2-0 South Carolina lead. Dubuc then completed the hat-trick with his fourth goal of the season at the 15 minute mark by lifting another shot under the cross bar from the right side of the net. At the end of two periods the Stingrays held a 3-0 lead and a 33-15 shot advantage.

The Everblades looked to grab some momentum in the third period, but the Stingrays kept the pressure on through the first 10 minutes of the final period. The Everblades did finally find the back of the net at 11:23 when Ross Carlson snapped a shot from the left side of the crease up over Johnson's shoulder. Kevin Baker and Brad Herauf each collected assists on Carlson's second goal of the year. That tally did spark life into the Everblades who over the final eight minutes brought a lot of pressure on Johnson and the Stingrays, but Johnson held strong making some big saves to keep the Everblades from getting any closer.

South Carolina sealed the win with an empty net goal by Keith Johnson with six seconds left in the contest.

In net Leggio (1-1-0) suffered the loss after allowing three goals on 45 shots. Johnson bounced back from the loss last night to earn his first win of season by turning away 27 shots.

On the power play, the Everblades converted finished the night 0-of-5, while the Stingrays finished the night 1-of-5.

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