Blades Win One, Lose One (5-4 & 6-3)

(These pictures are from Wednesday, they were too good not to use!)

The Everblades continued their home stand against the Trenton Devils Friday and Saturday.  The Blades had to play without goalie Barry Brust (who is still leading the ECHL in GAA) and defenseman Matt Duffy, who were called up to the Aeros and Amerks respectively. Lucky for the Blades Milan Gajic has been making up for all the time he lost while he was injured. He managed to net two goals and an assist in Friday's win, and two goals Saturday.

Fridays game came down to the wire, with the Devils scoring with 13 seconds to go. The Blades did manage to come out on top with the final score being 5-4 (you can find the gamesheet here. You'll notice that once again it was a penalty filled affair, with 20 seperate penalties being handed out. Shea Guthrie, Phil Paquet, and Ernie Hartlieb all notched tallies for the Blades on top of Gajic's two. That win made the Blades record against the Devils 3-1-0 for the season.

There really is only way to describe Saturdays game... Aaaaarrrrrrggghhh. The Blades ended up losing 6-3 to the Devils (game sheet here). An interesting scuffle did break out with Hartlieb and Olson mixing it up at the same time. Gaijic notched two more goals, and Brandon Buck netted the third.

There was a silver lining to this series. Of the 9 goals scored by the Blades this series, 5 were power play goals. This is something the Blades have been struggling with this year. Perhaps they've found the key to taking advantage of the man advantage.

Unfortunately, there is a possible grey cloud. With Barry brust in Houston, and Mike Morrison in Albany, Chris Beckford-Tseu is the de facto starting goaltender for the Blades. He has been struggling with consistancy and I don't think we can look forward to him preforming like he did against the Nailers. I might be wrong (it wouldn't be the first time), and maybe the upcoming road trip is what he, and the rest of the guys, need to get back on to the winning track.

The Blades will be in Charlotte next week taking on the Checkers. After that, they return for a Tuesday/Wednesday series against the Gladiators. They then leave for South Carolina to take on the Stingrays Friday/Saturday and the Gladiators Sunday. For now, enjoy the last of the awesome pictures from Wednesdays game...