ECHL: Quality, Not Quantity Leads Florida Everblades to 3-2 Series Lead

The #4 seed Florida Everblades will take a 3-2 series lead to the North Charleston Coliseum after they shut out the South Carolina Stingrays on Saturday Night 3-0, “We found a different way to win tonight, and I think that’s important, especially in a seven-game series” said Head Coach Brad Raplh. Florida would open the scoring as Blake Winiecki would pick up his first goal of the series at the 11:05 mark of the first period, and that’s all the Everblades would need in Game 5. Special teams played a huge factor in tonight’s game, as Joe Pendenza would pick up a PP goal at the 17:20 mark to double the Everblades’ lead, “I think specials team has played a big factor in this series; our penalty kill wasn’t great in the regular season so we knew that was something we needed to focus on and we did a great job, and we gained momentum from it and we didn’t look back from there” said Blades defenceman Stefan LeBlanc. The Stingrays would have a huge opportunity as they would be rewarded with a five-on-three to finish the second, and that PP would carry on into the third period but couldn’t convert. Luke Lambdin picked up a PP goal for the Everblades, as they finished the night 2/4 on the man advantage and killed off all five penalties they took.(Quote). Cam Johnson stopped all 35 shots that he faced, “Ya, It was a good game, the boys played well today, I didn’t have too many challenging shots, so those game will win all day, the boys played well in front of me” said Johnson on his 35-save shutout performance, “He’s the backbone of our team” said LeBlanc about Johnson. The Everblades will look to win the series on Monday Night in South Carolina.