Florida Skates Past South Carolina, 6-3
January 18, 2003 - ECHL (ECHL)
Florida Everblades News Release
ESTERO, FL - The Florida Everblades (21-12-8) upended the South Carolina Stingrays (23-16-3) 6-3 in front of a sold out crowd of 7,181 at TECO Arena on Saturday night. Florida forwards George Awada and Kevin Brown each picked up two goals in the win. With the win, Florida moved back into sole possession of third place in the ECHL's Southeast Division.
The Everblades got on the board early after forward Kevin Brown registered his 11th goal of the year at the 3:37 mark of the period. Brown then added his second goal of the night in the first period to give the Blades a 2-0 lead at the 12:47 mark.
In the second period, forward Joe Blaznek netted his 19th goal of the season on the power play to extend Florida's lead to 3-0. The Everblades then grabbed a commanding 4-0 lead after forward George Awada went the length of the ice on a breakaway and snapped the puck past South Carolina netminder Kirk Daubenspeck at the 6:54 mark of the second period. The Stingrays then got on the board when Dave Seitz tipped in a Matt Desrosiers shot at the 8:03 mark. South Carolina then made it 4-2 on a goal off the stick of forward Robin Gomez. However, the Everblades answered right back and made it 5-2 after forward Laurent Meunier skated across the slot and lifted the puck into the top corner at the 15:23 mark of the second period.
In the third period, the Stingrays got back to within two goals and made it 5-3 after forward Mike Jickling slipped the puck past Everblades goaltender Rob Zepp. Forward George Awada then finished the scoring for the Everblades on the power play after he collected his own rebound and flipped it into the top of the net at the 7:57 mark of the third period to give the Everblades the 6-3 win.
Florida goaltender Rob Zepp (16-8-5) stopped 32 of 35 shots he faced while South Carolina netminder Kirk Daubenspeck (22-12-3) stopped 12 of 16 shots and was relieved in the second period by Dean Weasler who stopped 18 of 20 shots. The Everblades were 3 for 7 on the power play while the Stingrays were 2 for 4.
Florida hosts the Greenville Grrrowl in a two game weekend series at TECO Arena next Friday and Saturday night at 7:30 PM.
3 Stars:
1 - Awada - FLA
2 - Brown - FLA
3 - Blaznek - FLA
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