JACKSONVILLE, FL – Saturday night in Jacksonville, the Icemen hosted a double themed night. First off was the Teddy Bear Toss, a minor league hockey staple. Also, since the Last Jedi was released this week, it was also Star Wars night. On the ice, the Icemen (5-13-2-2) faced off against the Greenville Swamp Rabbits (14-10-2-0). This was the second meeting of the season between the two clubs, and the first visit by Greenville to Jacksonville this season. In their first meeting on October 26, the Swamp Rabbits won 5-4.
Jacksonville started Auston Lotz (1-2-0-1) while Greenville started Ty Rimmer (9-3-0-0).
In a first period that did not see any penalties until the period was almost over and very few shots were on goal, it was the Icemen who scored first and sent the teddy bears flying. Garet Hunt recorded his sixth goal of the season at 17:37, beating Rimmer low. Dajon Mingo and Cameron Critchlow recorded the assists as the Icemen fans in attendance threw what was later announced as over 3000 teddy bears and other stuffed animals onto the ice. That would also be the only scoring of the period as it ended with Jacksonville leading 1-0. Jacksonville outshot Greenville 6-3 while the only penalty of the period was called on Jacksonville’s Elgin Pearce for holding with 18 seconds left.
The second period would be a different story as the Swamp Rabbits scored four times to break the game open. Jack Nevins opened the scoring at 7:29 on the power play, picking up a rebound off a shot by Austin McKay and beating a screened Lotz five hole. For Nevins, it was his fourth of the season, with the second assists going to Sergey Zborovskiy.
Less than three minutes later, Evan Jasper recorded his first of two consecutive goals off assists from Branden Troock. A second assist on the Jasper’s first goal was given to Sean Flanagan. There would be no second assist on Jasper’s second goal of the night, his seventh of the season. The first goal came at 10:14, the second at 13:49.
The last Greenville goal came at 15:56 when, upon winning the faceoff, Caleb Herbert drew the puck back to Joe Basaraba, whose low shot beat Lotz. The scoring ended after that, with Greenville leading 4-1. Greenville would outshoot Jacksonville in the period 8-7 but trail in the overall total 13-11. Both teams had 13 minutes in penalties, mainly coming from fighting majors to Greenville’s Nevins and Jacksonville’s Cristiano DiGiacinto and also double roughing minors to Greenville’s Matt Prapavessis and Jacksonville’s Tanner Eberle. After the second, Jacksonville decided to make a goalie change, replacing Lotz with Colton Phinney.
Jacksonville attempted to make a comeback in the third period, scoring a goal at 8:21 when Elgin Pearce beat Rimmer. For Pearce, it was his seventh of the season with Mingo and Critchlow both getting their second assists of the game. However, that would be all the Icemen could muster as they ended up losing to the Swamp Rabbits 4-2.
Icechips: Jacksonville would outshot Greenville in the third period 12-5 and for the game 25-16. Both teams ended up with 20 minutes in penalties for the game… Attendance for the game was 6,076… All three stars of the game were from Greenville. First was Evan Jasper, second was Ty Rimmer and third was Branden Troock… Jacksonville’s next game is Wednesday when they travel to Estero to play the Florida Everblades. They return home Thursday night to play Atlanta… Greenville now returns home to start a five game homestand (10 of their next 13 are at home) when they host South Carolina Thursday night.
Contatc the author at kenneth.holdren@prohockeynews.com
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