ESTERO, FLA – The next to last day of the 30th ECHL season league schedule saw the final game of the regular season schedule for both the 2017 Brabham Cup Champion Florida Everblades (52-13-2-4, 110 points) and the Jacksonville Icemen (26-38-4-3, 59 points). The season series had not been kind to the Icemen, who had lost 12 of the previous 13 meetings with the Everblades this season.
Austin Lotz (19-19-1-1, Â 3.05 Goals Against Average)Â Â started the game for the Icemen while Martin Ouellette (32-5-1-1, Â 2.05 GAA) got the start for the Everblades.
In a game where it could be expected that, with neither team not really having any standing position to play for, the scoresheet would be rather quiet. The only scoring of the period would be done by the Everblades, when, at the 14:00 mark, Sam Warning recorded his 19th goal of the season, with assists going to Steven Lorentz and Logan Roe. This would be the only goal of the period as the buzzer sounded with Florida holding the 1-0 lead.
The only penalty of the first period would go to Jacksonville’s Christopher Dienes, who went off for tripping at 4:52. Florida outshot Jacksonville 11-3 for the period.
The second period would be much like the first period, the difference being that there would be no scoring in the period. The only penalty of the period would be given to Florida’s Michael Kirkpatrick, who went off for goaltender interference at 5:30. Florida outshot Jacksonville again for the period 9-7 and hold a 20-10 advantage after two.
Before the third period began, Jacksonville changed goalies as Denis Tsaruk replaced Austin Lotz. Jacksonville then proceeded to tie the game at the 7:32 mark on Tanner Eberle’s 23rd goal of the season, which was unassisted.
However, in a span of just under three minutes, Florida would register three goals to put the game away. First, at 12:44, Derek Sheppard recorded his 4th of the season from Roe. Then 41 seconds later, at 13:25, Brett Bulmer recorded his 23rd, off the assist from Justin Kea. Then at 15:24, John McCarron got his 29th of the season from Lorentz. With that, the scoring ended with Florida winning 4-1.
Both minor penalties in the period went to Jacksonville. For the game, Jacksonville had six minutes to Florida’s two. Florida outshot Jacksonville 14-10 in the third and 34-20 for the game.
Icechips:  Florida ended the season series by winning 13 games out of the 14 played against Jacksonville this season… Attendance for the game was 7,214 and took 2 hours and 11 minutes to play… The three stars of the game were:  1st — Derek Sheppard (Fla); 2nd — Logan Roe  (Fla); 3rd — Tanner Eberle (Jac)… With Norfolk’s 5-2 loss to Reading Saturday night, Jacksonville ended the season tied with Norfolk for fifth place in the South Division. Both teams finished up 10 points behind fourth place Atlanta… While Jacksonville’s season is over, Florida’s continues on as they host the Atlanta Gladiators in the first round of the 2018 Kelly Cup playoffs. Game one of the best-of-seven series is Monday, April 16th in Estero.
Contact the author at kenneth.holdren@prohockeynews.com
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