Blades end road schedule with 4-2 loss to Stingrays
March 21, 2008 - ECHL (ECHL)
Florida Everblades News Release
CHARLESTON, SC - For the second straight night the Florida Everblades (35-23-8) ran into a hot goaltender as South Carolina net-minder Davis Parley turned away 44 of 46 Florida shots to win his fifth against the Everblades and lead the South Carolina Stingrays (41-22-3) to a 4-2 victory on Friday night at the North Charleston Coliseum in front of a crowd of 4,521.
The Everblades came out strong to start the game and opened the scoring, but the Stingrays responded with two in the frame to carry a 2-1 lead into the first intermission. From the start, the Everblades established good pressure in the offensive zone and eventually it paid off with Jarret Lukin notching his 9th goal of the season at 3:57 of the period. The play began with rookie Jeff Prough feeding a pass to Brett Peterson who dumped the puck to the right corner. As the puck bounced to the bottom of the right circle, it hopped over Parley's stick and right to Lukin who chipped the disk into the open net for a 1-0 lead.
The Stingrays answered Florida's goal when team captain Cail MacLean notched the first of his two goals at 8:47. With South Carolina controlling the puck in the offensive zone, Travis Morin found MacLean heading to the left post and fired a pass from the right circle across the top of the crease where MacLean deflected the puck in to even the score at one.
South Carolina then grabbed the lead after taking advantage of a 5-on-3 power play opportunity. MacLean cashed in his 21st goal of the season at 15:05 by slapping home a rebound at the left post. Everblades goaltender David Shantz made a first save on defenseman Rory Rawlyk's point shot, but rebound kicked out to his right where MacLean was waiting.
The second period opened with the Stingrays adding to their lead just 2:42 into the frame. Matt Scherer registered his 10th goal of the year after taking a pass from Pierre-Luc O'Brien and one-timing a shot from between the circles past Shantz to open a 3-1 lead.
The score remained that way until the final minute of the period when strong pressure by the Everblades once again equated to a goal. With 13.5 seconds remaining in the period, the Everblades, who out-shot South Carolina 13-9 in the frame, worked the puck around the offensive zone. Eventually the puck ended up on Mathieu Melanson's stick in the high slot. The rookie forward fired a shot to the net that Preston Callander deflected past Parley and inside the left post to cut the Stingray lead to 3-2.
The Everblades came out firing in the third period, out-shooting South Carolina 18-7, but for the second straight night couldn't find the tying goal against a hot goaltender. In the meantime, following Florida's second power play of the night, the Stingrays added some insurance at 14:41 when Todd Griffith raced into the Everblades zone on the left side and slid a pass across the middle that banked off Everblades defenseman Ernie Hartlieb's skate and into the net.
The game signaled the end of the road portion of Florida's schedule, with the club closing out the season 13-18-5 away from Germain Arena.
Shantz stopped 27 of 31 shots, but saw his record drop to 9-4-3 despite a solid effort in net for the Everblades.
On the power play, the Everblades closed out the night 0-for-2, while the Stingrays finished the contest 1-for-5.
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