JACKSONVILLE, FL – Saturday night at the Veterans Memorial Arena in Jacksonville, the Jacksonville Icemen and Florida Everblades faced off for the seventh time this season. The series had not been kind so far this season to the Icemen, who had lost all six previous meetings to the Everblades, all in regulation. Florida entered the game with the best record in the Eastern Conference (26-6-1-2) while Jacksonville entered the game with a 10-20-3-2 record.
Jacksonville goalie Austin Lotz made 22 saves in Saturday night’s contest (PHN photo by Trina Kirk)
Martin Ouellette (14-3-0-1, 2.15 goals against average) got the start in net for Florida while Austin Lotz (5-4-1-1, 3.21 goals against average) started for Jacksonville.
The only scoring of the first period took place at the 15:27 mark and it was Florida that got on the board first. Tyler Ganly recorded his fourth of the season, on assists from Brett Bulmer and Josh Wesley. That would end up being the only scoring of the first period as the Everblades lead 1-0 at the first intermission.
Penalty minutes in the opening frame ended up being seven for Florida and five for Jacksonville, most of that coming in a fight between Keegan Kanzig of Florida and Jacksonville’s Garrett Klotz. Jacksonville outshot the Everblades in the period 7-6.
The second period saw the two teams get more active on the scoring side of the ledger, but it would take over ten minutes of period action before that would happen. It would be Jacksonville first to make that happen as Elgin Pierce recorded his franchise leading 12th goal of the season with the only assist going to Klotz.
Only 1:33 later, Jacksonville took the lead when Josh Erickson notched his fourth of the season with assists going to Brendan Collier and Scott Savage. Just over two minutes later, Florida tied the game when Steven Lorentz recorded his fifth on assists from Matt Mackenzie and Joe Cox. That score would remain the same until late in the period when, while Florida was on the power play, Jacksonville would take the lead on Cameron Critchlow’s ninth of the season and his second short-handed goal of the season. The only assist would be awarded to Scott Savage.
Florida was assessed eleven minutes in penalties in the period, Jacksonville nine. Over two periods, the count stood at Florida 18, Jacksonville 14. Florida outshot Jacksonville in the second 10-7 and took an overall 16-14 lead in shots after two.
Jacksonville’s Garrett Klotz and Florida’s Keegan Kanzig went toe-to-toe in Saturday’s first period (PHN photo by Trina Kirk)
Florida came out of the gate fast in the third period, scoring twice in the first two minutes to take the lead. Bulmer would score first, lighting the goal light at the 1:16 mark of the period. For Bulmer, it would be his seventh of the season with assists going to Ganly and Mackenzie. Just 42 seconds later, the Everbaldes took the lead on Quentin Shore’s eighth of the season on assists from Wesley and Nelson Armstrong.
Jacksonville’s attempts to tie the game would come up short and Florida would close out the scoring on an empty net goal by Mackenzie at 18:25. For Mackenzie, it was his second of the season. Assists were awarded to Shore and Justin Kea to create the final score of Florida 5 and Jacksonville 3.
Jacksonville would be charged with the only penalty of the third period, ending the game with 16 penalty minutes while Florida ended the game with 18. Florida would outshoot Jacksonville in the period again by the same 10-7 margin as they did in the second. Florida outshot Jacksonville in the game 26-21.
Icechips: Attendance for the game was 8,041, 459 short of a sellout… The three stars of the game all came from the Everblades: Matt Mackenzie (1st), Brett Bulmer (2nd) and Tyler Ganly (3rd)… Florida’s road record is now 14-2-1-1 while Jacksonville’s home record fell to 6-9-2-1… Jacksonville’s next game is Sunday afternoon when they travel to North Charleston to play the South Carolina Stingrays. The Icemen return home Wednesday the 24th to play South Carolina… Florida is just starting a streak of eight straight games away from home. Game two of that streak is scheduled for Monday afternoon in Atlanta against the Gladiators. Start time for the holiday contest is set for 12:35 p.m. The Everblades return home Friday February 2nd to play Greenville.
Contact the author at kenneth.holdren@prohockeynews.com
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