By ANDY KENT
Naples Daily News

ESTERO -- Hard to tell which of the two teams -- the Florida Everblades or the
South Carolina Stingrays -- was playing its fourth game in five nights Tuesday
at Germain Arena.

A lackadaisical and undisciplined performance by the host Everblades nearly cost
them in their final home game before their first road trip of the season, but
they managed to pull out another come-from-behind victory, winning 5-4 in
overtime in front of a paid crowd of 4,704.

Rookie defenseman Nick Vukovic buried the game-winning goal 3:21 into the
five-minute, 4-on-4 extra session after being left all alone in the slot to take
a perfect feed from Steve Saviano. Vukovic had time to stop the puck and fire a
laser into the back of the net, finishing off a strong third period and most of
overtime for the Blades.

"It was a great pass by Savi, it seemed like I had all day to take that shot,"
said Vukovic, who had one other overtime game-winner last year in college at
Wilfred Laurier University in Canada. "I saw the goalie kind of move in there, I
had the whole side to myself and just put it on the ice. I was lucky it went in,
and I'm sure it was exciting for the fans." Florida (4-1-0) heads up to Georgia
this weekend for back-to-back games against the Gwinnett Gladiators on Friday
and Saturday nights. Both games start at 7:35 p.m.

South Carolina (2-4-4) led 1-0 after the first period and 4-3 after a tumultuous
second but couldn't finish the job, falling victim to a resilient Everblades
team still trying to find an identity after numerous roster moves.

"We can't seem to buy a win in the extra frame," Stingrays head coach Jason
Fitzsimmons said.

"That's our fourth overtime loss, so if we could transform a couple of those
into wins we should be getting closer to where we want to be in the standings.

"But if you would have told me coming into this game that we were guaranteed to
get one point, with guys playing hurt and at different positions, I would have
taken it. I was proud of the way the guys played." Saviano continued his hot
scoring streak, adding a goal and another assist to give him 10 points for the
season (3 goals, 7 assists). Newcomer Phil Aucoin filled in admirably for the
injured Paul Cabana, assisting on Ernie Hartlieb's second goal of the game 14:01
into the third period on a power play that tied the game at 4-4.

Rookie Daniel Sisca scored his first professional goal 5:04 into the second
period to tie the game at 1-1 and goaltender Phil Osaer stopped 28 of 32 shots
to pick up his third win of the season.

Dave Spina, J.F. David, Jeff Legue and Robin Gomez scored for the Stingrays and
Ty Morris had three assists. Goaltender Mike Brown, who was reassigned by the
American Hockey League's Providence Bruins, stopped 29 of 34 shots in his second
game for South Carolina.

"I like the fact that we came out and we fought through a lot tonight,"
Everblades head coach Gerry Fleming. "I think we took some bad penalties, and
against a team like South Carolina you can't take bad penalties. They scored two
power-play goals tonight, which was a little disappointing for us, but we fought
through it, guys were resilient and found a way to win."

Forward Anders Strome injured his knee late in the third period charging to the
net with the puck when his skate got caught on the back of the net. He was
helped off the ice favoring his right leg and Fleming said he won't know the
extent of the injury until Strome gets X-rays today.

Florida gave South Carolina a 5-on-3 power play a little over five minutes into
the game when defensemen Chris Lee and Ryan Brindley went to the box 33 seconds
apart for hooking and high sticking penalties, respectively, at the 5:10 and
5:43 marks. The Stingrays cashed in quickly as Spina banged in the rebound of
Legue's shot from the top of the crease past Osaer at the 6:02 mark. Morris also
got an assist.

Moments later, Osaer came up with three big saves on Gomez, who was on the
doorstep and couldn't stuff the puck past a stubborn Osaer. Then an interference
penalty on South Carolina's Nate Kiser 8:26 into the opening period gave Florida
its first power play of the night.

Just over a minute into the man advantage, Strome was whistled for roughing,
making it 4-on-4 hockey for a spell, before the Stingrays went on the power play
for one minute and 22 seconds. A tripping penalty on Everblades defenseman
Martin Tuma at the 11:11 mark gave South Carolina another 5-on-3 for 33 seconds,
but this time the Blades killed it.

When South Carolina's Marty Clapton decked Vukovic along the back boards right
in front of the referee and got a roughing penalty and a 10-minute misconduct at
the 16:19 mark, that seemed to fire up the sparse home crowd. However, Florida
couldn't get anything going on the power play, and with 17 seconds left in the
period gave the Stingrays another one when Aucoin was whistled for charging.

The Everblades woke up the crowd 1:27 into the second period when Saviano scored
a shorthanded goal off an assist from Brindley, wristing a shot high past Brown.

A little over a minute later, Florida's Brandon Coalter and South Carolina's
Steve Spencer dropped the gloves and fought to a virtual draw. It was Coalter's
first fight of the young season.

"It was good timing, it was the right time," Coalter said. "Right before that I
asked Gomez to fight but he already had a black eye from the last game. Spencer
came out a couple of shifts later, lined up beside me and asked me if I wanted
to get something going.

"I looked at the clock, we were down a goal, perfect timing, so I figured I
might as well get the guys fired up a little bit. He's a big boy, strong guy. I
had to kind of keep my balance, he was trying to throw me around, but it worked
out all right. It was fair."

At the 5:04 mark, Sisca banked a shot from below the left circle off the back of
Brown's skate and into the net. Hartlieb and rookie forward Jonathan Lehun drew
the assists and Florida had its first lead at 2-1.

But the Stingrays answered back 6:49 in when David bounced in the rebound of
Morris' shot from the right point past Osaer to tie the game at 2-2. A major
fight broke out after Stefanski cross-checked David to the ground and when the
ice was cleared, Stefanski and South Carolina's Craig Olynick were sent to the
showers. Stefanski's penalty gave the Stingrays a power play. Tuma and Kiser
also went to the box for fighting.

South Carolina retook the lead at the 8:57 mark just after the penalty expired
when Legue beat Osaer off assists from Marty Clapton and Trevor Johnson and
extended the lead to 4-2 two minutes later when Gomez was left all alone by the
far post and had a wide open net to shoot at. Morris and Ryan Finnerty got the
assists.

"Both teams came out flat, feeling each other out, and we took a lot of
penalties in the first period," said Hartlieb, an assistant captain for the
Everblades. "It took us a while to get into the flow of the game, then in the
second period we started coming. But they scored a couple of power-play goals to
get up on us and then we had a good third period and won in overtime."

Hartlieb cut it to a one-goal deficit at the 13:46 mark when he took a pass from
Saviano in the slot and beat Brown between the legs for his second goal of the
season, and the Blades staged a furious rally in the closing minutes to try to
tie it up before the final intermission but came up empty.

Florida got its second power play of the third period at the 12:16 mark, but
once again, couldn't generate any scoring chances with the man advantage until
just 15 seconds remained. Hartlieb was in the right place again, camping out in
the front of the net as Chris Lee's shot bounced off the boards right to him at
the 14:01 mark. Aucoin got the second assist and the game was tied at 4-4.

"The call that put them on the power play (holding on Aaron Power) was
absolutely insane," Fitzsimmons said. "And then (the referee) just puts (the
whistle) away after that. That's what frustrates me the most in this entire
league is just the inconsistency."

Saviano nearly scored the go-ahead goal with 2:55 left when he took the puck all
the way in with a defenseman trailing, but Brown somehow managed to keep the
puck out of the net, and regulation ended in a tie. This marked the second
consecutive overtime game for the Blades. They beat Augusta in a shootout, 4-3,
last Saturday.

NOTES:
In a strange twist of fate, the Everblades made a trade before Tuesday night's
game with the Las Vegas Wranglers and acquired forward Kevin Bergin, who was
involved in a fight with Everblades forward/defenseman Grant McNeill on Oct. 29
that put McNeill on the seven-day injured reserve with a concussion. Florida
gave up future and financial considerations for the 24-year-old Bergin, who will
join the team on the road for this weekend's two-game series with the Gwinnett
Gladiators in Georgia.

The Montreal, Quebec native has two assists and 11 penalty minutes this season
and 107 points and 429 penalty minutes in five professional seasons, all in the
ECHL.

Florida also signed another player, defenseman John Adams,who was playing over
in Europe after spending the last four years at Boston College. The former
third-round draft pick of the NHL's Buffalo Sabres (2002) arrived in town
Tuesday afternoon and should be on the ice for this morning's practice. The team
bus will leave at midnight for Georgia.

Cabana (shoulder) was placed on the 7-day IR before the game and Stefanski was
activated and put in the lineup for his professional debut. He was given a game
misconduct and ejected 6:49 into the second period after getting in a fight with
South Carolina's Craig Olynick, who also was ejected and given a game
misconduct.

Rookie forward John Ronan switched jersey numbers with newcomer Phil Aucoin, who
was acquired last Friday from Charlotte for cash. Aucoin took Ronan's No. 25 and
Ronan was wearing No. 27.


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