Florida charges back to down South Carolina

By Chris Umpierre
Fort Myers News Press

The 2005-06 Florida Everblades don't seem to do things easy.

For the second consecutive game, the Blades fell behind by several goals, staged
an impressive comeback and won after regulation.

Florida defenseman Nick Vukovic scored a game-winning, overtime goal as the
Blades beat South Carolina 5-4 on Tuesday night in front of an announced crowd
of 4,704 at Germain Arena. Florida, which overcame a three-goal deficit to beat
Augusta in a shootout Saturday, won four games in its season-opening five-game
homestand.

The Blades (4-1-0) will hit the road for the first time Friday and Saturday,
when they will play at Gwinnett.

Vukovic scored the game-winner with 1:39 left in overtime. Forward Steve Saviano
fed Vukovic in the high slot. With nobody in front of him, Vukovic took two
strides and rifled a shot past Stingrays goalie Mike Brown.

"Great pass by Savy," said Vukovic, who has two goals this season. "It seemed
like I had all day to take that shot. The goalie moved and I had the whole
(left) side to myself. I put it on the net and I'm lucky that it went in. It's
pretty exciting.''

Blades coach Gerry Fleming, whose club trailed 4-2 midway through the second
period, barked at the officials throughout that stanza. He followed the
officials off the ice after the second period. At one point, Florida had seven
penalties and South Carolina had two.

The Blades and the Stingrays finished with 11 and nine infractions,
respectively.

Up 4-3 at the start of the third period, South Carolina's Aaron Power was
whistled for holding and Florida forward Ernie Hartlieb scored a power-play goal
to tie the game at 4 with about six minutes left.

"You knew the calls were going to go in their favor as the game progressed, and
it did,'' South Carolina coach Jason Fitzsimmons said. "That call that put them
on the power play with (six) minutes to go was absolutely insane. That's what
frustrates me the most in this entire league, the inconsistency.''

Fleming declined to talk about the officiating afterward.

"He was frustrated, just like all of us,'' Hartlieb said of Fleming. "We had
seven penalties to their two at one point and they scored a goal off a guy's
stomach (in the second period). It's frustration. (Fleming) wants to win just as
bad as us.

"I think tonight we had to come from behind due to all the penalties. Hopefully,
we get a lead in the third period and we don't have to battle back.''

ICE CHIPS

* Newly acquired Florida F Anders Strome injured his right knee with 11:07 left
in the game. Driving to the net, Strome's right skate got stuck in the net. He
was helped off the ice and never returned. It's unclear how long Strome will be
out. He will have X-rays on his knee this morning, Fleming said.

* The Blades will sign D John Adams today. A 2005 Boston College grad, the
6-foot-2, 193-pound Adams played in Europe last season.

* The ECHL ruled Tuesday that linesman JR Waller didn't use excessive force
during a fracas in Saturday's third period between the Augusta Lynx and Florida
Everblades. Blades forward Paul Cabana injured his right shoulder in the
incident and will miss two to three weeks. ECHL vice president of hockey
operations Rod Pasma said the league doesn't plan on disciplining Waller, who
worked Florida's game Tuesday.

"We typically don't comment on how we deal with our linesmen but in this case
I've seen the tape and, in our opinion, excessive force was not used," Pasma
said Tuesday. "Cabana was trying to get away and the linesman was trying to
restrain him. That's all we see."

Cabana said Waller should've been suspended. "So I'm going to have to sit out
(while Waller referees)," Cabana said. A melee erupted with 7:20 left in
Saturday's game. Cabana charged to help a teammate when Waller grabbed Cabana's
right arm. "For a while it looked like he was fighting me," said Cabana, who
believed that Waller should be suspended. "I'm going to have to talk to him,"
Cabana said.

* The Blades put Cabana on the 7-day injured reserve and activated forward Sean
Stefanski on Tuesday. Stefanski played in his first pro game Tuesday.

* Florida acquired forward Kevin Bergin from the ECHL's Las Vegas Wranglers for
future and financial considerations Tuesday. The 6-foot-2, 200-pound Bergin will
be in uniform when Florida plays at Gwinnett on Friday and Saturday.

Originally posted on November 09, 2005


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