JACKSONVILLE, FLA – Chase Lang scored the eventual game winner as the Jacksonville Icemen earned a hard-fought 4-3 victory over the Brampton Beast in front of announced crowd of 8,276 at Vystar Veterans Memorial Arena on Saturday, January 11th. With the win, the Icemen snapped Brampton’s five-game unbeaten streak.
Brampton scored first just four minutes into the first period when David Vallorani finished off a 2-on-1 rush to put the Beast ahead 1-0.
Jacksonville evened things up with eight minutes remaining in the opening frame. Brendan Warren fed a pass to Alexis D’Aoust just above the right side of the crease. D’Aoust angled a shot high into the net behind Brampton goaltender Evan Fitzpatrick for the goal.
The Icemen grabbed a 2-1 lead on a strike from Bobby Lynch just 1:13 into the second period. However, the lead lasted for three minutes when Eric Bradford was left wide open in front of the net and batted a centering feed past Jacksonville goaltender Adam Carlson.
The Icemen re-claimed the lead just 32 seconds later when Pierre-Luc Mercier put back a rebound from a Crag Martin shot for the go-ahead marker. The goal was the sixth for Mercier in the last three games.
Minutes later, Chase Lang netted his ninth of the season to give the Icemen a 4-2 edge after two periods.
Brampton got a much needed tally early in the third on the power play as Jackson Leef picked up a loose rebound following a Carlson save, and shoved the puck into the net to pull Brampton within one.
Later in the period, the Icemen’s penalty kill unit stepped up and killed off a four-minute double-minor power play for Brampton. The big special teams stand gave the Icemen some momentum, and Jacksonville managed to hold off the Brampton attack to preserve a 4-3 victory.
During the first intermission of the contest, the Icemen, the City of Jacksonville and the ECHL announced that the team and the city will be awarded the 2021 Warrior / ECHL All-Star Classic on January 18, 2021. 
Text courtesy of Jacksonville Icemen
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