ESTERO, Fla. – Bobo Carpenter scored a pair of goals and nine different players registered points as the Florida Everblades knocked off the Savannah Ghost Pirates 5-3 Friday night at Hertz Arena. A crowd of 5,701 spirited fans enjoyed a festive Carnival Night atmosphere as the Everblades sent their supporters home happy.
A back-and-forth first period saw the teams play to a 1-1 deadlock after 20 minutes of play. At the 12:03 mark, Oliver Chau started the scoring in his return to the Everblades’ lineup after sitting out two games and recording his eighth goal of the season. Chau banged home a shot from the right circle after a strong cross-ice pass from Logan Lambdin with Joe Pendenza earning the secondary helper. Savannah’s Keltie Jeri-Leon tied the contest just 42 seconds to close out the first-period scoring.
This middle frame started quickly for the Blades, as Carpenter regained the one-goal lead with a snipe from the left circle at the 1:39 mark. The goal was Carpenter’s team-high 14th goal of the year, with Charles Linglet grabbing his first assist with the Everblades.
While the Ghost Pirates’ Brandon Estes tied the game at 2-2 at 6:15 of the second period, Florida answered in short order, claiming a 3-2 lead as Nathan Staios’ scored in heavy, physical traffic just 43 seconds removed at the 6:58 mark. Andrew Fyten picked up the helper.
In his Everblades’ debut, Weiland Parrish doubled the Florida lead just 2:46 into the third, beating sprawled Savannah netminder Michael Bullion to put the good guys ahead 4-2. Will Reilly earned the assist.
The Ghost Pirates pulled within one, as Brent Pederson made it a 4-3 game with a power-play tally at 14:12 of the final frame.
Carpenter’s second goal of the game closed out the 5-3 victory with 51.3 seconds in the game.
For Florida, which outshot Savannah 38-27, netminder Evan Cormier (6-4-2-0) made 24 saves and was a winner for the fourth time in five games, while Bullion (9-6-2-1) stopped 33 shots and suffered the loss for Ghost Pirates.