ECHL: Short road trip no easy task for streaking Everblades

After one of the most successful homestands in recent memory, the Everblades (10-3-3) hopped on a bus Monday night bound for South Carolina for the first stop on a four-game ECHL road trip.

They will play four games in five nights before returning home, all against Southern Division opponents. The Everblades lead the division by one point (23-22) after going 4-0-0 against Charlotte and Florence over the last two weekends.

One of the two teams on the Everblades' heels is the Greensboro (N.C.) Generals, Florida's opponent Thursday night at 7.

The Generals (11-5-0) are tied with Columbia (10-3-2) for second place, with Roanoke (Friday night's opponent) in third at 10-6-0.

South Carolina (7-7-1) is in fourth and Florence (5-7-2) is in fifth.

"It's tough to win in all of those barns," said center Brent McDonald, who was held out of Monday morning's practice with a sore knee. "All those teams are right close behind us, so it would be nice to get some wins on the road and get some separation. They're going to be gunning for us but I like our chances. We've showed that we can win on the road."

McDonald is tied for fourth in the league in scoring with 24 points (8 goals, 16 assists), and his two linemates are ahead of him. Brian McCullough leads the league with 27 points (12 goals, 15 assists) and Keith Anderson is tied for second with 25 points (12 goals, 13 assists).

Head coach Gerry Fleming will be dealing with another roster shake-up, as defenseman Jared Newman was recalled Monday by Florida's American Hockey League affiliate in Lowell, Mass. The Lock Monsters are sending defenseman Peter Reynolds down.

Fleming said in addition to McDonald, rookie forward Carl Mallette (back) and forward Jay Legault (flu) were kept out of practice and are day-to-day.

"These kinds of trips actually are good because there's nothing else to focus on but hockey," Fleming said. "One good thing is the travel isn't as hectic as the West Coast trip. It's not far in between the cities so the travel will be a little better.'

The Everblades swept last weekend's two-game series with the Pride and showed their versatility in the process.

In the first game, they showed their scoring touch with a 5-3 victory, then turned around on Saturday and won a defensive battle, 3-1. Those teams meet again Sunday afternoon at 2:30 in Florence to close out the road trip.

Mallette and Legault sat out Saturday night's game, leaving Fleming with a short bench. He dressed eight forwards, with McDonald playing hurt and Gray Shaneberger coming back from a vicious hit into the boards that resulted in a five-minute major for boarding and a game misconduct for Florence's Jeff Szwez.

"We just had to dig deep and every single guy responded," said veteran defenseman and team captain Matt Pagnutti, who is sixth on the team in scoring with 12 points (3 goals, 9 assists). "After the second period Gerry came in and said you've gotta play for the guy beside you, and I think we all looked around the room and realized if we played 20 hard minutes we could win this game. That's what we did, especially in the end."

HOME SWEET HOME: The Everblades are unbeaten at home five weeks into the season, with a 6-0-2 record at TECO Arena. The only two blemishes are a 4-3 shootout loss to Gwinnett on Oct. 31 and a 3-2 overtime loss also to Gwinnett on Nov. 1.

ECHL BANTER: Mississippi's Louis Dumont scored a goal in Sunday's 4-0 win against Texas giving him 688 career points, one point shy of Rod Taylor, who holds the ECHL career scoring record with 689 points. ... Las Vegas goaltender and ex-Blade Marc Magliarditi is 9-2-2 and has moved into fifth place in the ECHL with 143 career wins in 233 games while Augusta goaltender Jason Saal is 6-3-1 and has moved into sixth place with 140 career wins in 277 games. ... Toledo defensman Paul Ballantyne scored an ECHL season-high six points in the Storm's 9-3 win at Wheeling on Saturday. ... Florida dropped to third behind Fresno and San Diego in attendance with an average 6,099 fans in eight games.