ESTERO, Fla. – The Florida Everblades fell 4–2 to the Jacksonville Icemen tonight in front of a home crowd of 7,380 at Hertz Arena, closing out the three-game series.
 
The first period was limited to mere shot attempts by both teams until Jacksonville’s Bennett MacArthur took a shot from the right circle that Nathan Dunkley would tip in to open the scoring with just 49 seconds left before the first intermission. Matteo Costantini registering the secondary assist.
 
Blades Goaltender Cam Johnson saw five shots, letting one by him. Icemen Goaltender Cameron Rowe stopped all 12 of Florida’s shot attempts.
 
“We need to get back to our game, we got away from it a little bit,” said Gianfranco Cassaro on Jacksonville’s late tally in his intermission interview with Blades color commentator Adam Plager.
 
Despite opening the second period trailing, the Blades maintained a strong presence in the Icemen’s zone and broke through at 8:02 as Craig Needham worked the puck in the slot and slipped a backhand past Rowe to even the score. Anthony Romano and Jordan Sambrook earning assists on that sequence.
 
At almost the exact same time as their first goal and with the same line of players, the Icemen struck again with MacArthur finding the back of the net on his backhand for his second point of the night. Costantini and Dunkley also marking multi-point nights on the play.
 
The Blades were unable to convert, ending the second period trailing by one but outshooting the Icemen 24-10.
 
Riding the momentum, Jacksonville added its third of the night just over halfway through the third period, Craig Martin burying an unassisted shorthanded goal to push their lead to 3-2.
 
Just two minutes later, Hertz Arena erupted as Cassaro blasted a one-timer from the right circle on the powerplay off a feed from Sambrook, cutting the deficit to one for the third time with about six minutes left.
 
 With Johnson heading to the bench for the extra attacker, Jacksonville capitalized as MacArthur sealed the game with an empty-net goal to cap a three-point night in a 4–2 loss for the Blades. Costantini picked up his third assist of the game, while Martin recorded his second. Four different Icemen finished with multi-point nights.
 
Johnson faced 15 shots over 60 minutes, stopping 12, while Rowe turned aside 31 of 33.
 
The Blades head out on the road next weekend, beginning Friday, January 23 at 7:05 p.m. against the Greenville Swamp Rabbits, followed by back-to-back games against the South Carolina Stingrays on Saturday, January 24 at 6:05 p.m. and Sunday, January 25 at 3:05 p.m.

Blades Bits

• Needham's ten-game point streak is tied for the longest by any player in the ECHL this season.
• Lukas Sillinger made his Everblades debut Saturday night, registering two shots on goal.

 
Saturday Night’s Gamesheet

 
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