Lynch, Icemen pound away on Gladiators

JACKSONVILLE, FLA – Friday night at the Vystar Veterans Memorial Arena saw the Jacksonville Icemen welcome back a cult hero as Wacey Rabbit returned to the lineup against the Atlanta Gladiators. While Rabbit contributed a goal, it was a pair of tallies by Bobby Lynch and 35 saves from goalie Michael McNiven that paced the Icemen to a convincing 6-1 victory in front of an announced crowd of 4,916.

Fan favorite Dajon Mingo got things going for Jacksonville when he lit the goal light behind Atlanta goalie Sean Bonar for his second of the season at the 10:35 mark of the first period off assists from Alexis D’Aoust and Brendan Warren.

Warren then doubled the lead for the home team when he scored an unassisted goal at 13:14, giving the Icemen a 2-0 lead after twenty minutes. The tally was Warren’s sixth of the 2019-20 campaign.

Early in the second, Warren and Pierre-Luc Mercier combined to set up Lynch for his first of the night at the 3:31 point. For Lynch, it was his fourth goal of the season. Less than two minutes later, Rabbit sent the crowd into a frenzy when he netted his first goal in his first game back to make it 4-0. Chase Lang and D’Aoust picked up the helpers on the goal.

Jacksonville was not quite done with scoring in the middle frame as the Icemen added one more goal for good measure. It came at the 14:36 mark when Mingo and Regan Nagy assisted on the first goal of the season by Braylon Shmyr, giving the Icemen a commanding 5-0 lead heading to the final period. Shmyr’s goal also ended Bonar’s night as Ben Halford replaced him in net.

Lynch scored his second of the game and fifth of the year 3:37 into the third period, completing Jacksonville’s run of six consecutive goals. Atlanta’s Samuel Asselin ended McNiven’s shutout bid with his tenth of the season with 6:53 remaining in the game to finish off the scoring.

The Icemen will be back on the ice at the Vystar Veterand Memorial Arena on Saturday night when the South division leading South Carolina Stingrays pay a visit for a 7 p.m. puck drop. The game will feature the team’s annual Teddy Bear Toss as well as being Star Wars Night.

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