ESTERO, FLA – For the second straight game, the Florida Everblades (30-17-4-4) fell to the Greenville Swamp Rabbits (20-22-4-3), dropping a 2-0 decision Friday night in Hertz Arena.
Greenville came out firing and jumped out to a quick lead as Max Zimmer put the Swamp Rabbits on top 1-0 with an unassisted goal just 14 seconds after the opening faceoff. The visitors soon doubled their advantage, with Bryce Reddick finding the net off an assist from Ben Freeman at the 7:16 mark to pull ahead 2-0 and send Everblades’ goaltender Tomas Vomacka to an early exit. Throughout the period, the Everblades had numerous scoring opportunities, including a penalty shot by Joe Pendenza with 1:25 left on the clock, but were unable to score despite outshooting Greenville 12-8 over the first 20 minutes.
The second period was silent on the scoring front, as the Swamp Rabbits claimed a 10-5 edge in shots on goal to take a 18-17 edge after 40 minutes, but neither squad could find the net in the middle stanza.
In the final period, the Everblades outshot Greenville 13-1, but neither team could bury the puck. Florida claimed a 30-19 advantage in shots on goal over 60 minutes of play.
The shutout loss was just the second suffered by the Everblades this season, both recorded by Greenville. Evan Fitzpatrick (6-9-2-0) made 30 saves and posted his second shutout of the season for the Swamp Rabbits, while the Everblades’ Parker Gahagen turned aside 13 shots and allowed no goals in nearly 51 minutes of action after coming in to relieve Vomacka (8-5-2-2) who suffered the loss and recorded four saves.
The three-game series wraps up Saturday at 7 p.m. on a busy evening at The Swamp.
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