The Florida Everblades dropped two of three games to the Texas Wildcatters at the Ford Arena in Beaumont, Texas this weekend. The Blades now fall to second place in the South Division standings, 2 points in front of the Gwinnett Gladiators with one game in hand on that team.

Thursday night, Texas grabbed an early 2-0 lead, scoring a pair of goals within 26 seconds of each other, midway through the first period. Jason Beeman's wrist shot was the first past Blades netminder David Shantz. Alex Leavitt scored his initial goal in a Texas uniform right off the face off.

Reggie Berg tallied on the power play with just over five seconds remaining in the period to make it a 2-1 game, going into the locker room. It was Berg's 12th of the season, a deflection of a Frank MacDonld shot.

In the second stanza, Jonathan Paiement's short handed attempted bounced off an Everblades defender and into the net to make it 3-1 Wildcatters. Paul Albers finished off the scoring on the power play, at 3:11 of the third. Shantz turned away 31 Texas shots, dropping his record to 9-4-0, while Miroslav Kopriva picked up the win for the lone star state squad. Boxscore.

Craig Kowalski earned a shut out win against the Stingrays on Saturday the 23rd. This next start in net six days later, would also prove to be a shut out. But the Wildcatters' Matt Yeats was no slouch either, as both goalies denied all shooters in regulation, and overtime, sending the 0-0 game to a shoot out.

Vince Bellissimo, Brent McDonald and Chris Lee all got past Yeats in the shoot out, while Mike Bayrack would sneak one by Kowalski. That was all Texas would get through, as the Blades took the win; they gave up one point in the standings to Texas however, due to the tie. Boxscore.

Kowalski, who picked up the MVP award in the 2001 Florida College Hockey Classic with Northern Michigan University, could not carry his win streak into the new year. Bayrack picked up his team leading 16th goal just under four minutes into the contest to stake the Wildcatters to an early 1-0 lead. Jason Beeman tallied with just over four minutes left to play in the period to make it 2-0 Texas going into the locker room.

Much like Thursday night's performance, Reggie Berg netted the Blades solo goal to make it 2-1 Catters late in the third. Florida tried hard to tie the game, pulling Kowalski for the extra attacker, but the strategy backfired, not once, but twice, as Olivier Proulx and Leon Hayward both recorded empty netters to seal the win for Texas.

Yeats kicked out 46 saves for the Texas victory, while Kowalski made 22 saves in the losing effort. Boxscore.

The Blades finally get a break from their familiar nemesis, not facing Texas again until March. Returning to Florida, the Everblades kick off a five game homestand, taking on the Charlotte Checkers on Friday, Saturday and Tuesday and the South Carolina Stingrays the following weekend.