Blades Stung in 3-2 Loss to South Carolina

NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. – Jon McDonald broke a third period deadlock to lead the South Carolina Stingrays past the Florida Everblades in a 3-2 decision Sunday afternoon.

After the loss, Florida is now four points behind South Carolina for third place in the South Division standings.

A slow first period saw the Stingrays grab the opening goal, with Ethan Strang scoring his second goal in as many games against Florida. At the end of the relatively eventless first, Kyle Neuber and Garet Hunt took offsetting unsportsmanlike conduct penalties, leading to four-on-four hockey at the start of the second. 

In that open ice, Connor Moore danced into a beautiful goal to put the Stingrays up by two. That gap wouldn’t last long however – less than a minute later, Kieran Craig found himself on a breakaway and ripped it home for his first goal in the ECHL. Logan Lambdin grabbed a helper on the goal to move his point streak up to three games. The Blades tied the game later in the frame on a two-man advantage with Sean Josling sniping home his 16^th goal of the season to tie the game.

With chances at both end, energy built throughout the third period until McDonald buried the tiebreaker off a give-and-go to put his team out front. The Everblades tried to tie things up but were unable to force overtime.

Cam Johnson took the loss for Florida with a 15-save performance while Mitchell Gibson grabbed the win with an 18-save outing.

Florida comes back home to play the Jacksonville Icemen at Hertz Arena on Wednesday, March 6 at 7:30 p.m. Visit floridaeverblades.com for more information and to purchase tickets. 

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BLADES BITS

• Kieran Craig is on a three game point streak (1 G, 2 A).
• Connor Moore’s goal was his 100^th point in the ECHL. 
• Florida has one game remaining in Charleston this season – it is March 16, the make-up date for the match on December 23, 2023 that got postponed due to unsafe ice conditions.
  
  Sunday afternoon’s scoresheet

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