ST. JOHN’S, NFL – Saturday night at the Mile One Centre in St. John’, Newfoundland, the Jacksonville Icemen ended their two-game road trip to the Canadian province hoping to sweep the third and final regular season meeting of the season between them and the host Newfoundland Growlers. However, the Growlers would have none of it as, behind Zach O’Brien’s hat trick, the Growlers defeated the Icemen 5-1.
Mikhail Berdin received the start in goal once again for the Icemen while Eric Levine got the start for Newfoundland.
Newfoundland actually did not waste much time getting the early lead when O’Brien opened the scoring at 1:59 when he took a pass from Kristians Rubins, split the Icemen defense and beat Berdin just inside the far post. For O’Brien, the goal was his ninth of the season. That’s where the scoring ended for the first period with the Growlers leading 1-0.
Newfoundland extended the lead to 2-0 in the second period when, at the 5:04 mark, Maxim Mizyurin recorded his first goal as a Growler when he got to a loose puck in front of the net and beat Berdin. Assists on the goal went to Sam Babintsev and Josh Kestner. Jacksonville would then cut the lead to 2-1 when Maxime Fortier, who scored twice Friday night for the Icemen, beat Levine at 11:05 on the power play. Assists went to Garret Cockerill and Christophe Lalancette.
However, six minutes later at 17:05, Newfoundland increased the lead back to two when O’Brien recorded his second of the night on a tip-in past Berdin. Rubins and Matt Bradley recorded the assists and the scoring ended there for the period with Newfoundland leading 3-1.
The lead then went to 4-1 in the third period when O’Brien scored the hat trick at 9:49 on the power play on Berdin’s stick side. Marcus Power and Garret Johnston recorded the assists. It would be Power that would end the scoring when, at the 19:30 mark, he scored on an empty net to give the Growlers the final margin of victory. J.J. Piccinich and Bradley got the assists as the Growlers won the game 5-1.
STATS: Jacksonville outshot Newfoundland for the game 29-23… Jacksonville had 16 penalty minutes in the game, Newfoundland 10… Newfoundland went 1-for-7 on the power play, Jacksonville 1-for-4… Four Growlers players (O’Brien, Rubins, Power and James Melindy) lead the game in plus/minus with a plus-3… Attendance was announced at 4,159… The three stars of the game all came from the Growlers 1st—O’Brien, Levine and 3rd—Rubins.
FOR WHAT IT IS WORTH: The Icemen will play the remainder of their 2018-19 regular season within their own division, except for a game on February 13th when the Manchester Monarchs come to town.
INTO THE FUTURE: The Icemen continue their long 10-game road trip in the month of January on Friday the 12th when they travel to Atlanta to play the Gladiators. The Growlers continue their six game home Tuesday night when they open a two-game tilt with the Maine Mariners.
Contact the author at kenneth.holdren@prohockeynews.com
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