Savannah Ghost Pirates finished up their three-game series in Florida on Saturday night. This is the tenth meeting of the two, and Florida Everblades leads 7-3. The previous two games in this series can only be classified as intense. Both teams played fiercely, leading to great saves and player interactions.
Scratched for the game, Savannah sees Pat Guay recalled to Henderson Silver Knights and has a healthy scratch, Griffin Lougrah. Out for health/leave: Goalie Michael Bullion and Forward Alex Swetlikoff are injured, Goalie Jesper Vikman is still out due to illness, and Nolan Valleau is out for personal reasons. Eddie Fritz is Savannah’s emergency backup goalie. Fritz is Savannah’s coaching staff member and can only play if the starting goalie is injured.
We started the first period with both teams going hard on offense, Savannah with defense falling slightly behind. Florida’s Joe Pendenza scored our first goal of the night at 4:06 in, and Mark Senden scored a second goal 9:46 later. During this period, the Pirates and Everblades pushed and shoved, with Savannah’s Logan Drevitch, Nolan Welsh, Noah Carroll, Florida’s Mark Senden, Sean Josling, and Cam Darcy getting the most action again. The most significant difference between this first period and Friday night is that neither team accrued a penalty. Friday night saw Savannah end with eight penalty minutes in the first period, and the referees were calling for something every time the players breathed wrong. The period ends with a bit of shoving happening again between teams. Savannah finished the period with eight shots on goal, and Florida had six with two goals. Jordan Papirny was in the net for Savannah with a GAA of 3.55 and SV% 0.875. Evan Cormier was in the net for Florida. Cormier last played on March 20th when Florida beat Savannah in overtime; he has a GAA of 2.83 and SV% of 0.908. We had Rookie Nolan Welsh take a check from behind, and he has yet to return to the game.
The second period got underway, and Savannah’s Captain Matthew Boudens put one in the net at 1:38, making the game 2-1 Florida. Logan Drevitch gets crosschecked by Sean Josling, and no penalty is called again. During the last two games, Josling has gotten away with dirty plays multiple times. Florida’s Jordan Sambrook gets away with Slashing Savannah’s Ross Amour. Floridas Mark Senden takes Savannah’s Brent Pedersen ice, and Pedersen heads to the team’s bench bent over in pain. Jordan Kaplan makes a massive hit on Florida Chris Ordoobadi, who then gets chirpy with Boudens. We see Anthony Collins step in and drop gloves. Ordoobadi accepts, and hands are thrown. Collins lands multiple overhead hits, but Oroobadi does not land one, with the refs breaking them apart and Ordoobadi celebrating like the victor.
In the next play, Florida’s Kyle Neuber openly Slashes Matt Boudens in front of a referee before the puck is even dropped. The puck dropped, and we headed to the Florida D-zone, where Cam Darcy and Matt Boudens had words. Darcy gets called for High-Sticking Savannah’s Captain. Savannah goes on its first Power Play, and Simon Pinard scores and ties the game. Followed by a High sticking on Logan Drevitch by Florida Josh Ho-sang, and Savannah extends the power play. On the power play, we saw two more penalty offenses by Flordia, but no calls made. Josh Ho-sang finds the puck and puts it in the net at 18:40. Florida closes the second period with a one-goal lead 3-2.
The third period starts, and Savannah is on fire on the ice; the team takes to the ice with a vengeance and does not take any more of Florida’s attitude. We see Rookie T.J. Lloyd hit the ice with Neuber, and the teams have to fight to get the puck out. Both teams are battling it out, and we see Ordoobodi chirping Boudens. If Ordoobodi fights again, he will be ejected from the game and then face a suspension. So, instead, he continued to pest Savannah’s players. Noah Carroll puts it into the net at 10:36, returning the Ghost Pirates to a tied game. Alex Gilmour takes Savannah to their first lead in this game when he puts it in the net at 13:08. Two minutes and 30 seconds later, Ross Amour finds the net at 15:38, putting Savannah up 5-3 with less than five minutes left in play. We see Florida pull Evan Cormier from the net with 2:30 left in the period, making it a 6v5. Alex Gilmour comes from the right side of the net, turns towards the boards, and whips a backhand shot towards the goal to score on an empty net, bringing Savannah 6-3. We have one last penalty on Savannah: Anthony Collins gets snagged for interference when Florida’s Kyle Neuber starts instigating against the Ghost Pirates.
Savannah Wins 6-3, and we have a lot of retaliation and chirping from Florida, starting with Goalie Evan Cormier slashing Alex Gilmour and Peter Tischke. Jordan Papriny heads out to meet Cormier but cannot get to him before the referee turns him around, and Cormier gets escorted off the ice. Referees stand in between both teams, as the Everblades continue to chirp the Ghost Pirates, with both teams finally clearing the ice two minutes after the game ends with no handshakes between competitors. Savannah saw 38 shots on goal, while Florida was kept at bay with only 22 allowed.
This win marks the second time the Ghost Pirates have beaten Florida in their home arena. With this loss, the Everblades, 34-20-7, are ranked fifth in the conference, and Savannah, 25-32-5, remains thirteenth. Savannah meets with the Greenville Swamp Rabbits on Thursday, March 28th, and Florida meets with the Greenville Swamp Rabbits on Thursday, March 28th, and Florida meets with Orlando Solar Bears on Monday, March 25th, in Orlando.
