Blades gain point, but fall 3-2 in shootout
March 14, 2008 - ECHL (ECHL)
Florida Everblades News Release
COLUMBIA, SC -The Florida Everblades (35-20-8) saw their four-game winning streak come to an end, but still collected a point in the standings after falling 3-2 in a shootout to the Columbia Inferno (28-25-10) in the opener of a four-game road trip on Friday night at the Carolina Coliseum in front of a crowd of 2,844.
The first period saw the Inferno tally the game's first goal as the teams traded opportunities throughout the opening 20 minutes. The lone goal came at 9:15 of the frame when Mac Faulkner one-timed a pass from Jeremy Schenderling off the right post and into the net to give Columbia the 1-0 lead.
Both teams had several chances on the power play over the opening period and into the second period, but neither team could cash in on their opportunities with Florida going 0-for-3 in the first and the Inferno going 0-for5, which included a four minute power play at the start of the second period.
The power play however would eventually click for the Everblades in the second period to even the score. On their sixth attempt with the man advantage, the Everblades would see Ernie Hartlieb complete a beautiful passing play by slapping home the puck from the right circle at 13:39. The goal, Hartlieb's 23rd of the season, came after Derek Damon slid a pass from the right point to Brandon Roach at the top of the left circle. From there, Roach delayed and got a Columbia defender to slide across out of position before finding a seam to hit Hartlieb at the bottom of the right circle.
The Inferno nabbed their first lead of the night midway through the third period when Daniel Sparre tallied his 22nd goal of the season with a power play marker at 10:09. The Everblades battled hard over the final half of the third period but Inferno net-minder Todd Ford kept turning them away as the Everblades out-shot Columbia 14-5 in the third period. The 14th shots by the Blades however did find a way past Ford off the stick off Damon with 2.4 seconds remaining in regulation.
The tying goal came with the Everblades holding a left circle face-off with just over six seconds remaining. With Everblades goaltender David Shantz pulled for an extra attacker, Brad Herauf won the face-off back to the left point. Roach corralled the puck and flipped a back-hand pass to Damon at the high slot where he rifled a one-timer past Ford for his 23rd tally of the season.
After a scoreless overtime period, the game moved to a shootout where again the goaltender came up strong. Jeremy Hall scored in Columbia's first round to give the Inferno a brief advantage, until Mathieu Melanson tallied for the Everblades in round two evening the shootout. From there the goalies turned away the shooters until round six. After Ford stopped Brad Zancanaro, Kris Sparre skated in and slipped a shot past Shantz for the game-winner. The result dropped the Everblades to 4-4 in shootouts this season, while the Inferno improved to 4-6 in shootouts.
Shantz earned a tie in the standings and improved to 6-0-2 in his last eight games and 9-3-3 overall after stopping 21 shots in regulation and overtime. Ford improved his record to 17-11-4 after turning away 38 shots in regulation and overtime, and stopping all but one shooter in the shootout.
On the power play, the Everblades closed out the night 1-for-10, while the Inferno finished the contest 1-for-8.
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