ESTERO, FL — John McCarron recorded his third career hat trick and added an assist to propel the Florida Everblades (31-9-1-4, 67 points) to a 5-1 victory over the Greenville Swamp Rabbits (20-23-3-1, 44 points) Saturday night at Germain Arena.
McCarron opened the scoring for the Everblades extending his scoring streak to five games with a wraparound goal that he squeezed past goaltender Ty Rimmer’s leg on the post just 4:08 into the first period of play.
The Everblades continued their assault following McCarron’s goal and were all over the Swamp Rabbits for the next five minutes. The Everblades were able to set up in the Greenville end and get off a few dangerous scoring opportunities from Justin Kea and Matt Berry, but the Everblades just were not able to jam one home.
Later in the first, the Everblades found themselves shorthanded after an interference penalty by Kyle Neuber. However, this did not faze the red-hot McCarron who was spring-boarded on a pass from Kea and dashed into the zone and fired a laser of a wrist shot by Rimmer. With McCarron’s second goal of the game, the Everblades extended their lead to 2-0 before heading into the intermission.
McCarron was not finished as the Everblades found themselves on a power play at the start of the second. McCarron was able to station himself in front of Rimmer and deflect a pass from Stephen MacAulay through Rimmer’s five-hole to give him the natural hat trick.
Just under a minute later, the Everblades added their fourth goal of the game, but this time it came from Brett Bulmer who planted himself outside the crease. Bulmer received a no-look pass on the backhand from Neuber and wasted little time beating Rimmer to make it a 4-0 game.
The Swamp Rabbits were able to end Callum Booth’s bid at a shutout with just 4:23 remaining in the second period, as Joe Basaraba scored his second in as many nights off an odd angle shot from the goal line sneaking it past Booth to make it a 4-1 game late in the period.
That would do it for the second period as the Everblades took the lead into the second intermission up 4-1.
The Everblades added their fifth goal of the game at 9:04 when Matt Mackenzie fired a shot from the point and Berry was able to deflect it perfectly past Rimmer. The goal for Berry was his second in as many games.
Rookie goaltender Callum Booth picked up his 14th win of the season corralling 26 of 27 shots, while Rimmer takes the loss allowing five goals on 40 shots.
The Everblades will now get set for a Wednesday affair at Orlando beginning at 7 p.m.
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