For most of Wednesday’s game against the Gwinnett Gladiators, the Florida Everblades looked as if they were going to send a message to their division rival and Craig Kowalski, their former goaltender.

It was not meant to be, though, as the Blades lost 5-4 to the Gladiators’ four-goal outburst in the final period of play.

“It was the things that we have talked about all year — defensive breakdowns and poor undisciplined penalties,” Blades coach Gerry Fleming said angrily. “I thought we had turned the corner on these things, but they just keep coming back to haunt us.”

Following two closely contested periods, the Blades got the lucky bounces and carried a 3-1 lead into the final period of play, but that would all change in the third period.

Reminiscent of a period in early February that prompted team president Craig Brush to call out his team, the poor defense and bad penalties Fleming talked about returned, leading to a four goals for Gwinnett.

The scoring barrage started less than three minutes into that final period. Kevin Nastiuk (19 saves) was beaten by Bryan Busniuk on the power play to get Gwinnett within a goal.

Just over four minutes later, Brad Zancanaro scored his 10th goal of the year to give Florida a two-goal cushion again, which on most nights would be enough to secure the win.

“You think that when you go up two goals like that, you should win,” said Zancanaro who finished with a goal and two assists.

The lead was not enough on this night. The defensive breakdowns began after Zancanaro’s goal, and Gwinnett capitalized over the final 10 minutes scoring three times on five shots.

The Everblades have two days to fix its problems before wrapping up their season series with the Gladiators Friday and Saturday nights at Germain Arena.