ESTERO, FL – Saturday night saw the back half of a home and home series between the Jacksonville IceMen and Florida Everblades. Florida won the first 6-3 in Jacksonville Friday night. The two teams travelled to Estero for the second game on Saturday.
This was also Florida’s turn at Marvel superhero night. They wore the Hulk’s colors Friday and stayed with them for Saturday’s game. Jacksonville stays in the red and blue Thor jerseys.
Starting in goal for Jacksonville was Jamie Philips, who started and lost the previous night against the Everblades. Philips entered the game with a 2-6-1 record. Martin Ouellette (6-1-0) started for the Everblades after Callum Booth played Friday night for Florida.
In the first, Florida would open up the scoring when Logan Roe beat Philips at the 3:31 mark. For Roe, it was his second goal of the season. Assists went to Nolan LaPorte and Brett Bulmer. That would also end up being the only scoring in the first period as Florida 1-0 at the intermission.
There were six total penalty minutes in the first period, four by Florida and two by Jacksonville. Florida outshot Jacksonville in the first by a count of 10-5.
In the second period, there was no scoring or penalties called for half the period. It was not until the 10:21 mark of the period that Jacksonville made it’s presence known on the scoreboard when they tied it up on Ryan Graham’s first goal of the season. The assist on the score was awarded to Brendon Collier. That ended up being the only goal of the period as the second period ended with the two teams tied at one.
Jacksonville outshot Florida in the second period 15-8 and had outshot the Everblades for the game after two at 20-18. All twelve minutes in penalties in the second period were called on Florida, with ten of those coming on a misconduct penalty called on LaPorte for a mouth guard violation.
In the third period, Florida came alive and took the lead 3:14 in when Joe Cox notched his fifth of the season. Quenton Shore along with Mitchell Heard were given the assists. Justin Kea would tack on an insurance goal at the 6:54 mark on an assist for LaPorte. There would be no more scoring in the game as Florida ended up winning 3-1.
There was only one penalty in the third,called on Jacksonville’s Emerson Clark. Shots were even for the third period 8-8.
Icechips: Jacksonville ended up winning the battle of shots on goal, 28-26. Florida ended up with sixteen penalty minutes to four for Florida… Attendance for the game was 5,789 with the capacity for Germain Arena being 7,186… All three stars for the game came from the Everblades. Joe Cox was the first star, Nolan LaPorte the second and Martin Ouellette the third… The two teams face each other again in a two game stint on December 8th and 9th, both games taking place in Estero… Jacksonville’s next game is Tuesday night when they travel to Orlando to play the Solar Bears… Florida’s next game is Wednesday night, when they travel to Norfolk to play three times in four days over the Thanksgiving weekend.
Contact the author at kenneth.holdren@prohockeynews.com
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