ECHL Florida Everblades

Blades end regular season with 2-1 shootout loss

April 2, 2011 - ECHL (ECHL)
Florida Everblades News Release


ESTERO, FL - The Florida Everblades (37-30-5) finished off the regular season with a 2-1 shootout loss to the South Carolina Stingrays (37-29-6) on Saturday night at Germain Arena.

In a tightly contested game that saw only one goal through the first two periods and no penalties whistled over the first 40 minutes of play, the Everblades came up short in their effort to close out the regular season on a winning note.

The lone goal in the first two periods came for the Everblades at 7:58 of the opening period when Matt Beca tallied his 22nd goal of the season. The play began with Alex Imbeault leading a pass down the right side to Evan Stephens who then whipped a pass across to Beca in the left circle. After bobbling the puck for a moment Beca swing down low where he tucked the puck inside the left post past Stingrays goaltender Todd Ford.

Neither team tallied in the second period with South Carolina out-shooting the Everblades 9-7 in the period, but early in the third period, the game's first penalty call led to the Stingrays tying the score. Just 45 seconds into the frame the Everblades found themselves short-handed and at 2:03 of the period Matt Scherer cashed in with a shot from the right circle that rang off the right post and into the net to even the score at one.

With neither team able to tally the game winner over the rest of regulation the game moved into overtime where the Everblades had a chance to grab the win with their first power play of the night. With just over a minute to go in the extra period, the Everblades went to the man-advantage, and although they had the puck in the zone the majority of that time, couldn't find a way to get a shot through to the net.

The game moved into a shootout where neither team scored in the first two rounds, but South Carolina notched goals on their third and fourth chances off the sticks of Pierre-Luc O'Brien and Rob Ricci. On the other side, the Everblades failed to tally on any of their four opportunites.

In goal for the Everblades Mike Zacharias earned a tie in the standings to finish the season 13-17-8 after stopping 31 of 33 shots in regulation and overtime. Ford closed out the season with a 12-8-2 record after picking up the win by turning away 18 of 19 shots.

On the power play, the Everblades closed out the game 0-of-1, while South Carolina closed out the night 1-of-1 on the man-advantage.

Head-to-head the Everblades closed out the season with a 5-5-3 record vs. South Carolina.

The Everblades return to action on Tuesday, April 5 when they host the Kalamazoo Wings in Game 1 of the first round of the Kelly Cup Playoffs at 7:30 p.m. from Germain Arena. Visit www.floridaeverblades.com and www.germainarena.com for more information on ticket packages, pricing and upcoming Germain Arena events.

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.com or calling 800-745-3000.

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ECHL Stories from April 2, 2011


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