JACKSONVILLE, FLA – On Wednesday, November 24th, the Jacksonville Icemen met the Florida Everblades in a Thanksgiving Eve rivalry matchup that ended up as fun and filling as a turkey day meal with all the trimmings. It was especially for the home fans at the Vystar Veterans Memorial Arena as the host Icemen came away with their second shootout win over the Everblades when Craig Martin scored to give Jacksonville a 5-4 victory.
The first period was a wild affair as the teams finished the opening frame tied at 2-2. Florida jumped out to a two-goal lead within the first six minutes when Jake Jaremko netted a pair of goals at 1:31 and 5:59. Both scores came off assists from Alex Aleardi with Xavier Bouchard getting a helper on the second goal.
Jacksonville responded with a pair of tallies before the frame ended. Jacob Panetta got the Icemen on the board at the 9:10 mark with assists going to Martin and Joey Sides. Then in the final minute, Ara Nazarian made a steal and scored on the rebound of his own shot to even the score.
The second period matched the first in terms of scoring. This time it was the Icemen who broke out to a two-goal margin in the space of 2:14. At the 7:42 mark, Martin set up Luke Lynch for a tally to make it 3-2. Then on a power play soon after, Martin and Panetta combined to help Sides light the goal light for a 4-2 lead for the home team.
The Everblades matched the pattern from the opening stanza, notching a pair of goals to knot the score. Dylan Vander Esch scored at the 13:23 mark with assists being credited to Jordan Sambrook and Kyle Neuber. Then with six seconds left in the frame, Blake Winiecki netted a power play tally from Jake McLaughlin and Robert Carpenter, producing a 4-4 tie heading to the third period.
The only excitement in the final frame of regulation was a fight between Jacksonville’s Ben Hawerchuk and Florida’s Levko Koper. Neither team was able to score, sending the combatants to overtime where Icemen goalie Tyler Wall stopped all six Florida shots while Everblades netminder Tomas Vomacka turned away the two shots Jacksonville had.
In the shootout, Wall denied Carpenter and Jaremko in the first two rounds while Derek Lodermeier beat Vomacka in round one. In round three, Martin sealed the win with a shot low to Vomacka’s right to close it out.
Contact the photojournalist at trina.kirk@prohockeynews.com
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