ESTERO, Fla. — Following goals from Akim Aliu and Clark Bishop in the second period, the Florida Everblades held on to defeat the South Carolina Stingrays, 2-1, for the second straight game.
“To be honest, I do not think we were very good at all,” Stingrays head coach Ryan Warsofsky said. “Besides our first period and the goal, I did not like it a lot.”
Stingrays’ leading goal scorer Rob Flick welcomed himself back to the lineup with a slam dunk power play goal in the first period. Max Nicastro lined him up well with a slap shot that ricocheted off Anthony Peter’s leg pad.
Flick missed yesterday’s game with food poisoning, per a team source. To make room for him on the roster, Trevor Gillies was placed on reserve.
“I thought he was good on that line with [Kelly] Zajac and [Joe] Devin,” Warsofsky said. The goal marked Flick’s 17th of the season. “I was pleased with his effort tonight.”
In the middle frame, the game slowed down dramatically. Following a heavy hit from Flick behind Peters, an Everblade had to exit the game. No penalty came from the hit, but that did not stop Curt Gogol from goading Flick into a fight.
After some stick jousting — which got Flick a double minor for attempting to spear — and tussling, Golog landed the first few punches. Flick scored the knockdown, then they got up and tried to keep going. Flick had to sit and watch the lead he gave his team evaporate from the penalty box.
“When you beat yourself with penalties and you’re PKing, it wears your team down,” Warsofsky said.
Aliu needed a five-on-three to get the space for his blast from the left corner, but his third goal of the season tied the game.
“That put a dagger in us pretty quickly,” Warsofsky said.
Bishop followed up his first ECHL goal last night with his second thanks to a no-look pass from Matt Berry.
“We just could not find our groove after that,” Warsofsky said.
It took until Parker Milner left the blue paint for the extra attacker to give the Stingrays a chance for the tie. Peters turned aside all 11 Stingrays third period shots for his 16th win this year.
Milner stopped 15 of 17 shots in the second period. He made 30 saves on the night.
Warsofsky pointed to a lack of puck support as part of his team’s struggles tonight. “When we have possession, we’re so far away from each other,” he said.
The first and foremost thing he wanted to fix, however, is staying out of the penalty box. Florida had seven power plays tonight after getting six last night.
“I think every team makes adjustments this time of year,” Warsofsky said. “When you play a team three times, you see adjustments and they made some from Wednesday night. We have to counter-react to those and focus on ourselves.”
The Stingrays and Everblades will conclude this three-game series tomorrow night from Germain Arena.
