Icemen Fall Short in Sold Out Home Opener

JACKSONVILLE, FL- Jordan Subban scored twice while goaltender Hunter Shepherd made 38 saves as the South Carolina Stingrays defeated the Jacksonville Icemen 5-2 in front of a sold out crowd of 8,967 at Vystar Veterans Memorial Arena. Saturday night.  The Icemen have now sold out five consecutive home openers.   

The Icemen got off to a quick start using the sold out crowd to give them momentum.  Jacksonville forward Ara Nazarian got the scoring started early as he buried home a rebound to give the Icemen a one goal lead minutes into the game.

Later in the period the Stingrays were able to pot a goal of their own to tie up the game at one goal apiece.

 The Icemen ended up on the penalty kill as Ara Nazarian sat for two minutes. South Carolina was able to capitalize on the powerplay to take a 2-1 lead. Veteran Andrew Cherniwchan blasted a slapshot from the right wing circle for the go-ahead marker.   

About halfway through the second ,the Stingrays scored again to make it 3-1 on a tally by Jordan Subban.   Later in the period, the Stingrays extended their lead on a Justin Florek goal.  Florek put back the rebound  from a shot in front to extend the South Carolina lead to three. The Rays took the lead into the second break despite being outshot 22-9. 

Subban tacked on his second goal of the game just 2:38 into the final stanza to give south Carolina a commanding 5-1 edge. 

Jacksonville captain Christopher Brown scored to bring the score to 5- 2 with five minutes remaining in regulation, but that would wrap up the Icemen scoring in the context. 

The game ended with some fisticuffs later as tempers started to boil over.  The physical play did not effect the outcome as South Carolina earned the 5-2 win.   The two teams meet again on Sunday in North Charleston, at 3:00 P.M. Fans can catch the game on www.mixlr.com/jaxicemen or on FloHockey.TV