Blades Move up in Standings After 4-1 Win Over Rays
March 30, 2011 - ECHL (ECHL)
Florida Everblades News Release
ESTERO, FL - Coming off one of their worst defeats of the season, the Florida Everblades (37-29-4) responded in a big way on Wednesday night at Germain Arena downing the South Carolina Stingrays 4-1 in front of a crowd of 4,740.
Led by Mathieu Roy's three points and Mike Zacharias' 34 saves the Everblades moved up in the Eastern Conference standings to fourth with their victory over their long time rival.
Roy opened the scoring late in the first period when a point shot from Bobby Raymond deflected off his glove and past Stingrays net-minder Todd Ford at the 15:58 mark. The goal was Roy's 15th of the season and also saw an assist go to Alex Imbeault.
Up 1-0 at the start of the second period, the Everblades started the middle frame sustaining waves of pressure by the Stingrays (35-29-6). But the Everblades did a strong job limiting South Carolina's chances, bending but not breaking. Late in the period the Everblades tacked on two more goals to snag a 3-0 lead entering the second intermission.
On what proved to be the game-winning goal at 16:27 of the second period, Ian McDonald and Alex Hutchings teamed up on a quick rush into the zone. McDonald carried the puck across the blue line on the right side before slipping a pass to Hutchings down the middle where he slipped a shot under the pads of Ford for his 13th goal of the year.
The big goal however for the Everblades came with 12 seconds remaining in the frame when David Fischer started the puck ahead from the Florida zone to Drew Larman in the neutral zone. Larman then slid the puck to Roy who raced into the zone through the right circle before wristing a shot inside the left post for his second goal of the night.
As the third period began, the Stingrays came out flying peppering Zacharias en-route to out-shooting the Everblades 11-0 in the first ten minutes of the period. During that stretch Trent Campbell got the Stingrays on the board with his 17th goal the year at 6:54 when he one-timed home a centering pass from Pierre-Luc O'Brien.
South Carolina continued to pressure the Everblades, but as the period wound down, again the Everblades bent but didn't break. Late in the frame the Blades added some insurance when Tim Spencer tipped home his first goal of the season with two minutes left in regulation off Fischer's shot from the left point.
In goal Zacharias improved to 13-16-7 with his 34 save effort, while Ford saw his record fall to 11-8-2 after allowing the four goals on 22 shots.
On the power play, the Everblades closed out the game 1-of-3, while South Carolina closed out the night 0-of-3 on the man-advantage.
The Everblades return to action on Friday, April 1 when they host the South Carolina Stingrays 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.
Bud Light 3 Stars:
1 - Mathieu Roy - FLA
2 - Mike Zacharias - FLA
3 - Tim Spencer - FLA
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