JACKSONVILLE, FLA – Saturday, February 27th was Nickelodeon Night at the Vystar Veterans Memorial Arena with the host Jacksonville Icemen wearing “Rugrats”-themed jerseys on a night where it was all about the kids having fun. By the end of the evening, everyone who was a fan of the team went home happy when Craig Martin scored the winning goal 3:28 into overtime to give the Icemen a 3-2 victory over the Orlando Solar Bears.
Scoring in the fifth meeting of the season between the two Sunshine State rivals started a little past the midpoint of the first period when the visiting Solar Bears notched a power play tally off the stick of Aaron Luchuk. Luchuk converted the rebound of a shot by teammate Jake Coughler for his sixth goal of the season to put Orlando up 1-0.
Jacksonville struck for two goals in a span of three minutes in the second period to take the lead. First it was Nick Saracino who beat Solar Bears goalie Michael Lackey with a shot to the far side of the net for his eighth of the year. Exactly three minutes later, Brendan Warren closed a two-on-none break by popping the rebound of a Mike Szmatula shot into the back of the cage for his fifth of the year and a 2-1 lead for the home team.
Orlando responded by tying the game less than two minutes after Jacksonville went in front. Tristin Langan backhanded the rebound of a Michael Prapavessis shot that rang off the crossbar past Icemen netminder Kyle Keyser for his fifth goal of the season at the 11:42 mark of the middle frame.
Neither team scored in the third period, sending the contest into overtime. After killing off a four-minute penalty that spanned from late in the third into the extra frame, Pascal Aquin broke out with Martin on an odd-man rush. Aquin waited for the right time to make a pass to Martin who wasted no time in firing the puck into the net to send Icemen fans home happy.
Jacksonville’s Keyser stopped 21 of 23 Solar Bears shots to earn the victory while Orlando’s Lackey turned away 24 of 27 Icemen tries in suffering the loss.
Contact the photojournalist at trina.kirk@prohockeynews.com
Follow us on Twitter @prohockeynews
You must be logged in to post a comment.