ESTERO, Fla. — The Savannah Ghost Pirates fell 6–3 to the Florida Everblades on Friday night in the first game of the weekend.
Florida opened the scoring just 3:32 into the contest when Reid Duke redirected a point shot from Gianfranco Cassaro to make it 1–0.
Savannah answered at 8:08 of the first period as Logan Drevitch tapped in the rebound of a Nicholas Zabaneh chance on the power play to tie the game 1–1. Bryce Brodzinski picked up the secondary assist.
The Everblades regained the lead when Hudson Elynuik scored on a breakaway to make it 2–1.
Just 1:05 later, Zabaneh responded, cutting in 1-on-1 and ripping a shot into the top-right corner to even the score at 2–2. Brodzinski recorded his second assist of the night, and Keaton Pehrson added another.
Moments afterward, Josh Davies buried a feed from Dennis Cesana at the left side of the crease to give Savannah its first lead, 3–2. Hunter Johannes also assisted on the play.
Florida drew even again when Elynuik slipped behind the defense for his second goal of the evening, tying the game 3–3.
The Everblades took the lead with 1:39 left in the second period when Anthony Romano knocked in a bouncing puck to put Florida ahead 4–3.
In the third, the Everblades extended their advantage at 11:24 when Oliver Cooper scored to make it 5–3. Just 18 seconds later, Romano punched in his own rebound off a setup from Oliver Chau, pushing the lead to 6–3 — the eventual final.
Will Cranley earned the win with 22 saves on 25 shots. Evan Cormier took the loss, stopping 21 of 27.
The Ghost Pirates return to action tomorrow for the second game of the series against the Everblades, with puck drop scheduled for 7:00 p.m. Fans can stream the game live on FloHockey or listen on Mixlr. For tickets and more information about upcoming games, visit ghostpirateshockey.com.
— GHOST PIRATES —
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