JACKSONVILLE, FLA – On Saturday, May 8th, the Jacksonville Icemen hosted the Wheeling Nailers for their Cancer Awareness Night at the Vystar Veterans Memorial Arena. What started out as a defensive battle ended up as wild, high-scoring affair that was won by the Nailers by a final of 8-5.
Two goals were scored in the first period, one by each team. Jacksonville opened the scoring during a power play when Nick Saracino scored his 13th goal of the season at 8:19 with assists from Trevor Hamilton and Brandon Gignac. Late in the frame, Wheeling evened things up when Jesse Lees netting his 8th of the year from Austin Fyten and Michael Prapavessis at 18:48.
The calmness of the first stanza morphed into a goalfest in the second. The Nailers took the lead at 1:37 when Cody Sylvester scored his 19th on a man advantage with Patrick Watling and Josh Winquist getting assists. The Icemen responded a little less than two minutes later on Abbott Girduckis’ 10th goal off of assists from Mike Szmatula and Jacob Friend.
Wheeling again crawled in front at the 4:42 mark as Watling netted his 8th of the year with Adam Smith and Matt Alfaro drawing the helpers on the play. Two minutes and 14 seconds after that, the score was tied for a third time when Saracino and Gignac combined to set up Pascal Aquin for a power play goal and his 16th tally of the season.
That was the last time the scoreboard would be all square as Wheeling scored the next two. The first came at 15:54 when Smith potted his 2nd goal of the year with the assists going to Alfaro and Sean Josling. The Nailers were able to double their lead before the intermission when Watling scored his second of the game and 9th of the year at 18:12. Brady Tomlak was credited with the lone assist.
Jacksonville drew within 5-4 early in the final frame when Gignac set up Christopher Brown for his 9th score of the season at 1:19. Watling answered back at 3:24 with his hat trick goal (and 10th tally of the season) from Winquist and Fyten on a power play.
The score stayed at 6-4 in favor of Wheeling until the 13:31 mark when the Icemen again pulled within one. Brown did the honors, netting his second of the game and 10th of the season. It was as close as they would get as Tomlak scored his 7th at 18:10 and Watling picked up his fourth of the game and 11th of the season into an empty net at 19:58 to close out the scoring.
Icemen goalie Charles Williams made 27 saves in suffering the loss while Nailers netminder Taran Kozun stopped 33 to earn the win. 
Contact the photojournalist at trina.kirk@prohockeynews.com
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