ECHL Florida Everblades

Everblades Go Rabbit Hunting in Greenville

November 12, 2021 - ECHL (ECHL)
Florida Everblades News Release


ESTERO, Fla. - The Florida Everblades hit the road again for a two-game series against their ECHL South Division rival Greenville Swamp Rabbits. The puck drops on Friday's series opener at 7:05 pm inside Bon Secours Wellness Arena.

THE OPPONENT: The ECHL affiliate of the NHL's Florida Panthers and the AHL's Charlotte Checkers, the Swamp Rabbits find themselves in seventh place in the South Division with a 2-4-0-0 record. On Thursday, in the lone contest on the ECHL slate, Greenville snapped a two-game losing streak with a 3-1 victory over the visiting Jacksonville Icemen.

THE SERIES: Florida sports a nifty 67-36-16 (.630) all-time record against Greenville. Last season, the South Division rivals met 10 times and the Everblades came away with a 6-3-1-0 advantage. This weekend's series marks the first two of 10 games in which the Everblades and Swamp Rabbits lock horns this season, with the first seven games slated to be played in the Palmetto State over three different road trips - November 12-13, January 14-15 and 28-30. The teams will battle March 2,4 and 5 at friendly Hertz Arena.

LAST TIME OUT: The Everblades had a three-game winning streak snapped on Wednesday, falling to visiting Orlando 3-2 at Hertz Arena, despite outshooting the Solar Bears 44-31. Robert "Bobo" Carpenter and Levko Koper scored third period goals to give the Blades a 2-1 lead with 8:20 to play, but the visitors scored a pair of goals two minutes apart, taking a 3-2 lead with 16 seconds left on the game clock. Florida's three-game road winning streak remains intact.

BLADES LEADING THE WAY: Blake Winieicki, the reigning Inglasco/ECHL Player of the Week, finds himself in the ECHL top-10 in goals and assists. The Lakeville, Minn. native is tied for second with six goals - tops among Everblade skaters - and ranks 10th with nine points. Joining Winiecki on the ECHL leader boards is John McCarron who ranks second in shots with 35, Cam Johnson who stands 12th with a 2.02 GAA, Xavier Bouchard who ranks fourth among rookies with 22 shots and Jake McLaughlin who is tied for third place among defensemen with six assists and also ranks sixth among defensemen with six points.

HUNTING RABBITS: Despite getting off to a slow start in 2021-22, Greenville has received solid play from goaltender Evan Fitzpatrick, who finds himself in fourth place among ECHL goalies with a 1.34 GAA, despite posting a 1-2 record as the starter in net. With 79 saves over 178 minutes of play, Fitzpatrick has posted a .949 save percentage which stands sixth in the league. On offense, leading scorer Brett Kemp sports six points, amassing four goals and two assists. Kemp is tied for the ECHL lead with three power play goals, all of which came in a freewheeling 7-5 loss to Atlanta this past Sunday.

CHECKING IN ON CAPTAIN EVERBLADE: With eight points on four goals and four assists this season, Florida captain John McCarron continues his climb towards the top of the Everblades' career leaders list. While donning a Blades sweater, McCarron has 126 career regular-season goals, third-most in franchise history. The captain is just 19 goals shy of Reggie Berg's all-time mark of 145. He also ranks fourth in Blades history with 166 regular-season assists, just 41 shy of Tom Buckley's team record of 207. Including playoff games, Captain Everblade has tallied 144 goals and is six shy of Matthieu Roy who sits in second place with 150, while his 194 assists is seven behind Berg's 201 for second place.

WHO: Florida Everblades at Greenville Swamp Rabbits

WHERE: Bon Secours Wellness Arena (Greenville, S.C.)

WHEN: Friday, November 12 at 7:05 pm

BROADCAST: Watch every Florida Everblades game on FloHockey.TV. Listen to the exciting game action on ESPN Southwest Florida on 770 AM, 98.1 FM, 104.3 FM and online at https://espnswfl.com.

Check out the Florida Everblades Statistics



ECHL Stories from November 12, 2021


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