ECHL: Blades' trip makes 2-day San Diego stop

Florida hopes to give the San Diego Gulls nightmares about their first meeting with a team from the east when the two square off at the San Diego Sports Arena in the first of back-to-back games.

The Everblades (5-2-2) are in the middle of a brutal stretch that has them playing seven games in 10 days, and are coming off a disappointing 6-4 loss Wednesday night in Long Beach. They blew a two-goal lead to the Ice Dogs twice in front of a sparse crowd.

AT A GLANCE

Blades (5-2-2) vs. Gulls (2-1-1) What: Florida Everblades at San Diego Gulls in first of back-to-back games When: Tonight, 10:35 Where: San Diego Sports Arena Radio: Sportsradio 770-AM (WWCN). Of note: This will be the first meeting between the two clubs in franchise history ... San Diego won the last ever Taylor Cup as 2003 champions of the now-defunct West Coast Hockey League. ... Gulls goaltender Trevor Koenig has a 1.97 GAA (8th lowest in the league), .929 save percentage (6th best) and a 2-0-1 record in three appearances for San Diego ... As far as goons go, San Diego's Josh Gratton fits the bill with 45 penalty minutes in just four games. Columbus' Rumun Ndur leads the ECHL with 68 penalty minutes, but that's in 10 games.

The lone bright spot for the Everblades was the continuing hot play of right wing Keith Anderson, who reclaimed the ECHL scoring lead with two goals, giving him 18 points (9 goals, 9 assists) in eight games. He was runner-up for ECHL Player of the Month for October, finishing behind Greg Day of Las Vegas.

Tonight, Florida faces a San Diego team that pretty much dominated the West Coast Hockey League for eight years before the league folded at the end of the 2002-03 season. The Gulls (2-1-1) captured five of the last eight Taylor Cups (awarded to the WCHL champion) and averaged 48 wins per season.

"They're even a better team now than the one that won the championship last year," Fleming said. "I know they're extremely physical, they have good goaltending and they're a skilled older team with lots of experience. They're solid from the net out."

Fleming will start Rob Zepp in net tonight and hasn't made a decision on who his starting goaltender will be Saturday. Rookie Daniel Boisclair took the loss in Long Beach after playing well for two periods. He stopped 38 of the 43 shots he faced, with Long Beach's final goal coming with an empty net.

Jeff Maund has been on the seven-day injured reserve since hurting his groin in the Everblades' home opener against the Louisiana IceGators on Oct. 24. Fleming has listed him as day-to-day but Maund did get in a light skate Thursday morning.

"I don't think there's much of a difference between the style of play on this coast and what we have gotten used to back east," Zepp said. "We just need to stick to our game plan and not let what happened to us Wednesday night happen again. I'm looking forward to getting back after that disappointing loss with a big win (tonight)."

Florida closes out its five-game West Coast trip Sunday at Bakersfield (8 p.m.) against the Condors. Then they'll bus back to Las Vegas and fly home Monday morning.

Blades lose Wednesday against Ice Dogs

The Florida Everblades missed a golden opportunity Wednesday night to stay perfect on their first ever West Coast trip.

Florida (5-2-2) twice squandered a two-goal lead to the host Long Beach Ice Dogs and lost 6-4 one night after pulling out a 5-4 overtime victory at Las Vegas.

The Everblades are off today as they head south to San Diego, where they will take on the San Diego Gulls in back-to-back games Friday and Saturday before closing out the road trip in Bakersfield on Sunday afternoon.