Everblades Ready to Sting the Stingrays

WHO: Florida Everblades vs. South Carolina Stingrays

WHERE: North Charleston Coliseum (North Charleston, S.C.)

WHEN: Saturday, February 25 at 6:05 pm

BROADCAST: Watch every Florida Everblades game on FloHockey.TV. Listen to the exciting game action on ESPN Southwest Florida on 770 AM, 98.1 FM, 104.3 FM and online athttps://espnswfl.com.ESTERO, Fla. – With four straight wins in the books, the Florida Everblades continue a three-in-three stretch that now takes them to North Charleston, S.C. for the first time this season for a 6:05 pm contest against the South Carolina Stingrays. The Blades and Rays will also meetup Sunday at 3:05 pm.

THE OPPONENT: The South Carolina Stingrays find themselves in sixth place in the ECHL South Division with a 17-27-5-0 record, which is good for 39 points and a .398 points percentage. The Stingrays are coming off a 6-2 thrashing to the Atlanta Gladiators on Thursday, just one day after they posted a 4-1 victory over Greenville. Over their last 10 contests, the Rays are 4-5-1-0. 

THE SERIES: Florida is a perfect 4-0-0-0 against the Stingrays, holding a 21-11 scoring advantage in those four games. Last week, the Blades took two from the Rays in Estero, claiming back-to-back 4-3 victories. Joe Pendenza (3 G, 4 A, 7 points) and John McCarron (3 G, 3 A, 6 points) lead all Florida scorers in the series, with four different players registering five points: Levko Koper (2 G, 3 A), Blake Winiecki (2 G, 3 A), Alex Aleardi (1 G, 4 A) and Chris McKay (1 G, 4 A). In three starts in net, Parker Gahagen is a perfect 3-0 with a 2.64 GAA and a .915 save percentage.

LAST TIME OUT: Florida Everblades goaltender Parker Gagahen registered a season-high 45 saves, including 20 in the third period, and Blake Winiecki scored the only goal of a shootout to lift the Blades (28-15-4-4) to a 3-2 victory over the ECHL South leading Jacksonville Icemen (30-14-2-2) Friday night at Vystar Veterans Memorial Arena. In the shootout, after Gahagen stopped the Icemen’s first attempt, Winiecki buried his opportunity, while Gahagen turned aside all the next two Jacksonville attempts to seal the win. The victory was Gahagen’s 11th of the campaign. With their first shootout win of the season, the Everblades recorded at least one point for the seventh straight game. Jake Jaremko and Michael Neville scored during regulation for the Everblades.

SEVENTH HEAVEN: The Everblades enter Saturday’s contest with a four-game winning streak intact, while also registering at least one point in seven straight games. During those seven games, the Blades have posted a 5-0-1-1 mark, while outscoring their opponents 25-17.

SHOOTOUT SUCCESS: Friday night’s 3-2 shootout victory was the Everblades’ first shootout victory in five tries this season. Additionally, the win marked the squad’s first road shootout victory since March 15, 2019 when Florida posted a 2-1 shootout triumph in Atlanta. The lone shootout goal in that victory? It was Blake Winiecki, who repeated the feat last night.

THE McCARRON WATCH: Despite not scoring a goal in each of the last five games, John McCarron has managed to pick up four assists over that time, increasing his franchise points record to 336 in the regular season and 382 in all games, including playoffs. In the goal scoring department, Captain Everblade’s career goal totals remain at 144 in the regular season and 162 in all games including playoffs. The franchise’s all-time point leader remains one goal shy of Reggie Berg’s career regular-season mark of 145 and within two of Berg’s overall mark of 164. With six goals in 10 February games – and three two-goal games and one hat trick in his arsenal this season – the franchise career goal scoring marks are squarely within the Captain’s sights.

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Watch every Florida Everblades game on FloHockey.TV. Listen to the exciting game action on ESPN Southwest Florida on 770 AM, 98.1 FM, 104.3 FM and online at https://espnswfl.com. 

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

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