JACKSONVILLE, FLA – On Saturday, December 11th, the Jacksonville Icemen hosted the Orlando Solar Bears in the latest chapter of their in-state rivalry. This time around, led by Vladislav Mikhalchuk’s hat trick and one assist, the Icemen put a hurting on the Solar Bears in the form of a 7-2 win at the Vystar Veterans Memorial Arena.
Mikhalchuk opened the scoring a little past the midpoint of the opening period, firing a shot from up top that went in and out of the glove of Orlando goalie Brad Barone and rolled into the net. Less than a minute later, Ara Nazarian redirected a shot by Jacob Friend into the cage to give the Icemen a 2-0 lead after one period.
In the wake of a fight between Orlando’s Kevin Lohan and Jacksonville’s Jacob Friend early in the second frame, the Solar Bears struck for their first goal when Kyle Topping tipped a shot by Dmitry Semykin in. The Icemen responded with Mikhalchuk’s second of the game off the rebound of a Craig Martin shot and two minutes later a Ben Hawerchuk tally to increase the margin to 4-1. A late period score by Joey Sides sent Jacksonville to the second intermission up 5-1.
Mikhalchuk netted his hat trick goal 53 seconds into the third period, whipping a shot past Solar Bears goalie Zach Emond, who had replaced Barone after Hawerchuk’s goal in the second. Tristin Langan scored a short-handed goal to bring Orlando a little closer but Luke Lynch got that one back with seven minutes left to create the final score.
Lynch (goal, assist), Nazarian (goal, assist), Croix Evingson (2 assists) and Martin (2 assists) joined Mikhalchuk with multi-point games. In all, 12 Icemen recorded at least one point in the contest.
Jacksonville netminder Francois Brassard made 24 saves to pick up the victory.
Contact the photojournalist at trina.kirk@prohockeynews.com
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