'Blades unable to tame Beast in Tuesday loss

ESTERO, Fla. — Led by a hat trick from Nathan Todd, the Brampton Beast topped the Florida Everblades, 8-2, on Tuesday night at Hertz Arena.

BOX SCORE

Playing their fourth game in five days, the Everblades (22-9-2-2, 48 pts.) fell in a 3-0 hole after the first period and couldn’t climb out of that deficit in their first loss since Dec. 20.

The Beast (21-12-2-0, 44 pts.) got on the board 3:45 into the game when David Vallorani — Brampton’s leading scorer — received an outlet feed from Daniel Leavens and scored on an abbreviated breakaway.

Todd added two goals in a span of one minute, 52 seconds to extend the Beast’s lead to 3-0. He scored on a one-time shot from the slot at 13:49 and then added his second of the game at 15:41 of the first on a two-on-one zone rush.

The Beast tacked on a fourth goal at 8:37 of the second period when Vallorani left a puck for Trent Bourque at the blue line that he skated into and hammered over the glove of Florida goaltender Ken Appleby.

The ‘Blades struck for their first goal of the night while shorthanded at 14:02 of the second period. Cody Sol cleared the puck the length of the ice, and John McCarron retrieved it and distributed from behind the net to Michael Neville. From the low slot, Neville got off a quick shot to beat Brampton goaltender Alex Dubeau.

Brampton answered to squelch any momentum for the ‘Blades, as Leavens managed to punch in a rebound in the seconds following the end of Florida’s penalty kill.

The Beast tallied three more times in the third period, with goals from David Pacan, Erik Bradford, and Todd opening the lead.

Florida’s Brandon Fortunato picked up his third goal of the season, a power-play strike at 8:29 of the third, to finish the scoring for the ‘Blades.

BLADES BITES

• The Everblades’ season-high six-game win streak was snapped in the loss.
• The ‘Blades power play converted on one of their five chances to continue their recent success. Florida has tallied a power-play goal on seven of its last 23 chances (30.4%).
• Mike Neville recorded a career-high with six shots on goal and scored his second career shorthanded goal.
• John McCarron assisted on both of the ‘Blades goals. The ‘Blades captain is currently riding a three-game point streak (2g-2a).  

NEXT UPFlorida heads right back to the state of South Carolina for a pair of games this weekend, starting with a Friday night matchup against the Greenville Swamp Rabbits. 

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The Florida Everblades are the proud ECHL affiliate of the NHL’s Nashville Predators and AHL's Milwaukee Admirals