Desperately in need of two points the Trenton Devils instead fell to the Florida Everblades for the second night in a row. Trenton played their trademark defensive system well for most of the contest, however two careless penalties by two veteran players did the T-Devils in.
Dave Caruso was given the starting nod for Trenton and despite getting hit up for two goals, kept the struggling club from shellacked even worse than they were. He would eventually stop 21 of the 23 shots he faced.
It took 35:44 minutes and a power-play for the Trenton Devils to break the scoreless tie. Tony Zancanaro tallied for the second game in a row, scoring off of a rebound that originated from a Slavomir Tomko point shot. It was the first time in nine home games that the T-Devils had scored first in a contest.
But the celebration was short-lived as Florida’s Mike Bayrack redirected a Kevin Baker wrist-shot from along the boards just 0:31 seconds later.
Florida eventually took the lead 2:00 minutes into the third period while the T-Devils had a pair of players, David Leaderer and Dan Eves, in the penalty box for delay of game and hooking respectively. The Everblades’ Ernie Hartlieb took a feed from Matt Duffy and fired the puck on net. Although Caruso made the initial save he was caught at the top of the crease. The puck squirted out to Jordan Morrison who was standing ten feet to the left of the crease giving him an easy opportunity to put it into the wide-open net.
With 2:42 remaining in the game Rick Kowalsky pulled David Caruso in favor of a sixth skater, however that idea back-fired and Florida’s Mathieu Roy was easily able to score on the vacated net.
Florida’s goaltender Barry Brust stopped 25 of 26 T-Devil shots for his third win in a row. The Everblades wrapped up an eleven game, three week-long road trip that started the day after Christmas. By winning six of the eleven games and picking up the mercy point for each of two shootout losses, Florida is now in sixth place within the conference with 46 points. Trenton (13-18-4-5 for 35 points) remains 8 points out of the eighth and final playoff spot behind Charlotte (7th - 43 pts.), Wheeling (8th - 43 pts.), Gwinnett (9th - 40 pts.), and Elmira (10th - 40 pts.). Every game for the rest of the season is crucial.
The T-Devils will travel out to play the Reading Royals on Monday January 18th at 1:05 PM in the Sovereign Bank Center. They will have three days of rest before they come back to Trenton for one game on Friday January 22nd against the Johnstown Chiefs at 7:00 PM. The following week the T-Devils will be in Florida for a three game set against the Everblades. The first game is on Wednesday January 27th, the second on Friday January 29th, and the third on Saturday January 30th; all games starting at 7:30 PM EST.
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