PHN’s Best Shots of the Game: Jacksonville Icemen lose home opener in overtime

Photos by Trina Kirk

JACKSONVILLE, FLA – On a night of firsts for the return to the ECHL for the city of Jacksonville, what the sellout crowd did not get was what they wanted the most – a home win – as the Jacksonville Icemen fell to the Orlando Solar Bears 5-4 on a goal by J.J. Piccinich with 51 seconds left in overtime.

The game started well for the Icemen when Scott Savage scored the first goal in Jacksonville when he beat Orlando goalie Cal Heeter on a power play for a 1-0 lead at 3:22. That lead would be short lived when Orlando’s Kristian Pospisil beat Icemen goalie Jamie Phillips to tie the game at one.

Another first was the first for the Icemen was the first penalty shot, which was awarded when Jacksonville’s Emerson Clark was pulled down from behind by Max Novak. However, his attempt hit the right post and stayed out.

With 20 seconds left in the first, Pospisil notched his second goal of the period to give the Solar Bears a 2-1 lead going into the first intermission.

Orlando extended their lead in the second period when Chris LeBlanc made it 3-1 but Jacksonville was able to close the gap to one when Emerson Clark scored.

The second period also saw two fights, with Jacksonville’s Garet Hunt receiving a 2, 5 and game misconduct for the second fight with Orlando’s Joe Perry.

Solar Bears goalie Heeter would get injuried in the second period in a collision in front of his net. He stayed in for the rest of the period but was replaced by Matt Hackett for the third.

The third period would see the Solar Bears extend the lead to 4-2 on Mike Vaskivuo’s goal. However, Jacksonville would bring the lead back down to one on Alexander Goulet’s goal at 13:32 and then brought the sellout crowd of 8,956 to their feet when Elgin Pierce scored to tie the game at four and eventually send it to an overtime period.

The overtime period went almost the prescribed distance but, on a wrap-around play, Orlando’s Piccinich beat Jamie Phillips with 51 seconds left to give the Solar Bears the win.

ICECHIPS: Orlando outshot Jacksonville 46-37 for the game… Orlando’s J.J. Piccinich was named the first star of the game with Jacksonville’s Alexander Goulet the 2nd star and Jacksonville’s Emerson Clark the 3rd… Jacksonville local hockey teams are now 0-1-1 in their debut at Veterans Memorial Arena. In 2003, the WHA2 Jacksonville Barracudas debuted in the Arena, losing to the Miami Manatees 6-2… Jacksonville continues its opening three game homestand this Saturday, October 21st when they host the South Carolina Stingrays.