After an electric home opener in front of a sold-out crowd at Veterans Memorial Arena, the Jacksonville Icemen (0-1-0-0) continue its 2017-18 season, presented by Community First Credit Union, against Kelly Cup runner-up, South Carolina Stingrays (0-0-0-0) at home.
The Stingrays are bringing 11 players back this season from last year’s remarkable run. As the third seed in the South Division, South Carolina went seven games against Manchester in the Conference Finals before being swept by Colorado in the Finals.
Heading into Saturday’s matchup, the Icemen have one clear advantage: rest. The Icemen had one full week off, whereas the Stingrays played Friday night at home versus Greenville and then traveled to Jacksonville. Another strong start early for the Icemen will be critical to set the pace for the game.
The Icemen need to continue its strong penalty kill against South Carolina to earn the franchise’s first-ever victory. The Stingrays had a higher power play percentage on the road than at home last season, scoring 21 times. Last week, Jacksonville successfully killed off all six penalties versus Orlando. The special teams performed strongly on the power play as well as Scott Savage scored the first-ever goal 3:22 into the first period on the man advantage.
If the Icemen can continue to score several goals per game, the team will start getting results. South Carolina averaged 2.93 goals allowed during the 2016-17 regular season, seventh in the league. However, the Stingrays allowed the fewest shots per game in the league last season, averaging 27.5 per game.
The Icemen face off against the Stingrays on Saturday, Oct. 21 at 7:30 p.m. at Veterans Memorial Arena. There’s still time to get tickets for Saturday’s Opening Night Too. Fans can click here for tickets.
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