ECHL: Shootout win a rarity for Blades

They won a shootout.

When the Everblades (8-3-3) pulled out a 3-2 shootout win Saturday night over the visiting Charlotte Checkers, the Florida faithful at first didn't know how to react. After watching their team lose nine of 11 shootouts last season and drop their first two this year, the fans truly had witnessed a rarity.

"We were pretty pumped to finally win in a shootout," head coach Gerry Fleming said Monday before heading out for his weekly radio show. "I know our fans liked it, one of the loudest ovations I've ever heard."

Keith Anderson's successful shot allowed Florida to take all four points from the weekend series with Charlotte and maintain its one point lead over the Columbia Inferno in the Southern Division of the Eastern Conference.

This coming weekend, the Everblades will entertain the Florence (S.C.) Pride in back-to-back games -- and this time goaltender Jeff Maund should get a breather for one of them. Rob Zepp was on his way back Monday night from Lowell, Mass., where he was on recall with the American Hockey League's Lock Monsters.

Zepp turned in a solid performance in net last Saturday on minimal rest, stopping 32 of 36 shots in a 4-4 tie with Worcester. He was called up when Brent Krahn, under contract with Calgary, was injured and then reassigned to the Las Vegas Wranglers.

But when Calgary assigned Danny Sabourin to Lowell on Monday, that opened the door for Zepp to return to the Everblades.

"Zepp played well and I'm happy that he got to play," Fleming said. "He did well and they were pleased and happy, but I'm happy for us he's back.

We had just loaned (rookie) Danny Boisclair to Peoria, and he got them a win over the weekend, but he's there for at least two weeks. So it will be good to have Zepp and Maund for this weekend."

Fleming also said he expects to have center Reggie Berg back after losing him for a week to a concussion suffered on the West Coast trip. According to league rules, a player with a concussion has to be symptom free for seven days before he can be cleared to play.

Berg will practice for the first time today after making it through the team's spinning class on Monday, and if he makes it through okay he should dress Friday night. Defensemen Ian Forbes (back) and Jon Insana are day-to-day.

MEET MC AND MAC: One month into the season, Florida's top line of Keith Anderson, Brian McCullough and Brent McDonald show on signs of cooling off.

Although Mississippi's Steffon Walby took over the top spot as the ECHL's leading scorer with 25 points, McCullough (24), Anderson (23) and McDonald (22) are hot on his heels.

Fleming took a shot at coming up with a catchy name for his scoring line, something that incorporates all three names like the NHL's Carolina Hurricanes had two years ago with their BBC line (Bates Battaglia, Rod Brind'Amour and Erik Cole).

"How about the 'Mc And Mac line?' " Fleming said after last Friday's 6-2 win over Charlotte.

"Mc for McDonald, the and for Anderson and Mac for McCullough (even there is no 'a' in McCullough's last name."

It will have to do for now.

ECHL BANTER: McCullough was Florida's nominee for the league's Player of the Week. The Burr Ridge, Ill., native scored three goals, including the game-winner Friday night, and added one assist. ... Checkers defenseman Kengo Ito of Japan, became the second Japanese player in ECHL history to score a point when he had an assist in Charlotte's 3-2 shootout loss on Saturday.

The first Japanese player to score a point in the league was Takahito Suzuki, who also played for Charlotte last season. ... The Fresno Falcons opened their home schedule Sunday in front of 12,462 fans at the brand new $100 million Save Mart Center. That was the second largest opening night crowd in league history, trailing only the 14,108 who witnessed the opening of the BI- LO Center in Greenville, S.C., for the Grrrowl.