Traveling down to sunny Florida for a three-game series, the Toledo Walleye dropped their first game of the road trip tonight, falling 6-1 to the Florida Everblades at Germain Arena.
After a slow start to the first period, Florida opened the scoring when Rob Hennigar took the puck off the backboard to best Walleye goaltender Jordan Pearce with nearly 14 minutes elapsed in the period.
Florida followed up with a second goal to close out the period as Ernie Hartlieb scored with 40 seconds left. The Everblades limited the Walleye to just three shots in the first 20 minutes of play.
The second period was very similar to the first as Florida continued to dominate on the scoreboard and in the shots department. Allowing the Walleye to record just a handful of shots to open the period, the Everblades went up 3-0 nearing the middle of the period with Rob Hennigar netting his second goal of the game on the power play. Elgin Reid added another goal about seven minutes later to send Florida to the locker room with a four-goal lead.
The third period began with some action as Dominic Osman was checked from behind right in front of the Walleye bench. Osman turned around to confront the offending Everblade and a small scrum formed, with Florida's Mathieu Roy and Brad Zanon and Toledo's Brock Wilson joining in on the scuffle.
The Walleye had the man advantage after the fight, but even the league-leading power-play unit could not connect, leaving them scoreless in the game.
Florida increased their lead to five at 9:32 in the third period when Benjamin Breault tallied his first goal of the season. This time, the Walleye answered right back as Justin Hodgman put the puck past Florida goaltender Mike Morrison 30 seconds later.
The Everblades made it 6-1 later in the period when Jacob Micflikier capitalized on a five-on-three advantage. Taking some of his frustrations out late in the game was Toledo's Mark Nubus, who unloaded on Ryan Lange, sending both men to the showers early with fighting majors.
The Walleye have a day off to regroup before facing the Everblades again this Friday from Germain Arena. They close out the trip with a third game against the Everblades on Saturday.
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