JACKSONVILLE, FLA – The Jacksonville Icemen had a successful opening to their 2018-19 campaign last Saturday night when they defeated South Carolina. Friday night at the Veterans Memorial Arena, the Icemen continued their opening four game homestand by facing their in-state rivals, the Orlando Solar Bears. After spotting the Solar Bears a two goal lead after the first period, the Icemen responded with three goals each in the last two periods for a 6-2 victory.
At the start of the season, the Icemen retired their old mascot Blizzard and introduced a new one, and asked the fans to name it. The winning name was Fang, which was the name of a police canine recently killed in the line of duty. His human partner, Matt Herrera, dropped the ceremonial first puck to start the game. Fang will wear the name K9.
During the 2017-18 season, the Solar Bears won seven of the nine meetings between the two franchises. The first game of the 2018-19 season seemed like a continuation of the previous one as the Solar Bears jumped out to a 2-0 lead. Defenseman Michael Brodzinski scored his first goal of the season at the 10:32 mark, with the lone assist going to Brady Shaw. With 28 seconds left in the period, the Solar Bears increased their lead to two on Hunter Fejes’ third of the season, assists being awarded to Mike Monfredo and Zach Todd.
However, this season looks like it will be a different type of Jacksonville team. The Icemen started to chip away at the Solar Bears lead when Alexis D’Aoust scored his second of the season, off an assist from Jack Glover. Then, with Orlando’s Monfredo off for slashing, Jacksonville’s Garret Cockerill notched his first of the season, with assists going to Wacey Rabbit and Kris Newbury. Jacksonville was not finished there because, on yet another power play (Vincent Dunn had been assessed a major for checking from behind plus a game misconduct), Everett Clark recorded his first of the season (and the eventual game winner) off assists from Dajon Mingo and Trey Phillips. Jacksonville ended the period with a 3-2 lead.
Jacksonville started the third period on the same power play that came from Dunn’s major) and took advantage of that just 27 seconds in when Rabbit scored his first of the season off assists from Cameron Critchlow and D’Aoust. That goal was the third consecutive power play goal of the game. The lead would increase to three at 11:57 when Cody Fowlie notched his second of the season off assists from Newbury and D’Aoust, who both recorded their second assists of the game.
Jacksonville also recorded the last goal of the game with just 11 seconds left in regulation. D’Aoust recorded his second goal of the game (and fourth point of the night) off assists from Jake Randolph and Mingo. That’s where the game ended with Jacksonville winning 6-2.
IN OTHER STATS: Jacksonville went 3-for-8 on the power play, Orlando 0-for-4… Orlando had 31 penalty minutes while Jacksonville had 25… Jacksonville had 33 shots on goal for the game and Orlando had 25… Mikhail Berdin started his second consecutive game for the Icemen and recorded his second win… Martin Ouellette recorded the loss for Orlando, seeing his record fall to 1-2… Attendance for the game was 5134.
TRIVIA: Last season, the Icemen had only one game all season when they trailed after one period. They have trailed in both games they played after the first period this season, but won both.
IN THE FUTURE: Jacksonville continues their opening home stand Thursday when they host the Atlanta Gladiators… Orlando continues their road trip tonight, in Atlanta against the Gladiators.
Contact the author at kenneth.holdren@prohockeynews.com
Follow us on Twitter @prohockeynews
You must be logged in to post a comment.