JACKSONVILLE, FLA – On Tuesday, May 25th, the Jacksonville Icemen began the last two weeks of their 2020-21 regular season against the Florida Everblades at Vystar Veterans Memorial Arena. It was the final meeting of the year between the two Sunshine State rivals with the Icemen continuing to battle for a post-season berth while the Everblades were continuing to hone their skills as the number one seed in the Eastern conference. In a back and forth affair, Jacksonville came from behind late in the third period on a goal by Ara Nazarian to tie before Nick Saracino scored the lone goal in a shootout to give the Icemen an all-important 4-3 victory.
The battle opened in the first period when just 1:42 in, the Everblades Cameron Hebig celebrated his return by firing a wrist shot from the near side boards through a screen. The shot beat Jacksonville goalie Kyle Keyser for Hebig’s 5th of the season. The score stayed that way until with one minute remaining before the internission, Just as a power play was ending, Icemen defenseman Ryker Killins launched a shot from the point that deflected off of teammate Derek Lodermeier and past Everblades netminder Jake Hildebrand for Lodermeier’s 14th of the year to make it a 1-1 game.
The second frame was almost an exact replay of the first. At the 4:52 mark, Hebig slid a pass to rookie Zach Berzolla who marched down the slot, avoided two defenders and whipped the puck into the back of the cage for his first professional score. At the time, it gave the Everblades their second lead of the night at 2-1. A little under nine minutes later, Jacksonville struck back again when Abbott Girduckis stole the puck in the Florida defensive zone. He set up Wacey Rabbit who fired wide but Girduckis tracked the puck down and sent it to the front of the net where Mike Szmatula chipped it in for his 18th of the year and a 2-2 tie.
Florida took its third and final lead of the game 7:24 into the final frame. On a two-on-one break, rookie Zach Solow held on to the puck and went top shelf on Keyser’s glove side for his first with the Everblades to give the visitors a 3-2 lead. The Icemen battled for the game-tying tally and finally got it with 62 seconds left in regulation. Jacksonville worked the puck around the perimeter before Brandon Gignac sent it toward the net. Nazarian was in the right place to deflect it into the back of the cage for his 21st of the season and a 3-3 deadlock.
Following a scoreless overtime period, the teams went to a shootout. After a scoreless first round, Jacksonville’s Saracino opened the second round by going low to the stick side of Hildebrand for what proved to be the game-winning tally. Keyser stopped Hebig in round two and Solow in round three to bring home the extra point for the Icemen.
Keyser finished the night with 19 saves plus three more in the shootout to collect the win while Hildebrand turned away 27 of 30 Jacksonville shots plus two in the shootout while suffering the loss.
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