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Florida Everblades

'Blades stymied by Stingrays 3-1

March 4, 2011 - ECHL (ECHL)
Florida Everblades News Release


ESTERO, FL - The Florida Everblades (30-26-4) dropped their third straight game to the South Carolina Stingrays after falling 3-1 to their division rival on Friday night at Germain Arena.

The Stingrays (33-22-4) improved their lead for second place in the South Division to six points over the Everblades with the victory.

South Carolina opened the scoring, but not until late in the first period. After a solid first period by the Everblades that saw them outshoot the Stingrays 12-9, it was South Carolina that tallied the game's first goal with 28 seconds remaining the frame. After Luke Popko's shot was stopped by goaltender Bobby Goepfert, Rob Ricci picked up the rebound in the right circle and flung into the net for his 22nd goal of the year.

The game remained 1-0 through the second period, although South Carolina carried the majority of play. The Stingrays out-shot the Everblades 13-5 and hit the goal post twice, but the play of Goepfert kept South Carolina off the board.

As the third period opened, the Everblades looked to get off to a quick start, but instead it was the Stingrays that jumped out quickly. Less than a minute into the period Trent Campbell blocked a shot at the left point then raced ahead into the offensive right circle before dropping the puck back to Pierre-Luc O'Brien who was trailing the play. O'Brien then fired a quick one-time shot from the slot that beat Goepfert between the pads.

The Everblades made a last gasp effort to draw even in the game, tallying a late third period goal with 51 seconds left in regulation. With the Goepfert pulled for an extra attacker, and the teams skating a 4-on-4 Elgin Reid fired a shot from the middle of the ice at the blue line that sailed through traffic and past Stingrays net-minder Shane Owen. Matt Beca and Alex Imbeault collected the assists on Reid's sixth goal of the season.

Off the ensuing face-off, the Everblades kept Goepfert on the bench, but they couldn't muster any further offense. With 16 seconds remaining the Stingrays salted the game away when Campbell scooped up a cleared puck in the offensive zone and tucked it into the open net for his 14th goal of the year.

In goal Goepfert suffered the tough-luck loss after stopping 28 of 30 shots, but saw his record fall to 19-12-3. For Owen his record improved to 7-3-2 after turning away 27 of 28 shots.

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.

The Everblades return to action on Saturday, March 5 when they host the South Carolina Stingrays at 7:00 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.

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