Written by Jake Wheeler
JACKSONVILLE, FL- Florida’s Alex Aleardi scored twice to lift the Florida Everblades to a 3-1 victory over the Jacksonville Icemen in front of an announced crowd of 6,124 at Veterans Memorial Arena Saturday night. The Icemen’s five game win streak came to an end.
Florida’s two first period goals ended up being enough to win the game, however, we saw another strong game from Luke Lynch as he scored the only Icemen goal.
Both teams started off the game trying to gain an edge in momentum and offensive zone pressure. The Everblades started to gain momentum early and used that to drive the play in their favor. Florida scored early off of an odd man rush and eventual shot from Alex Aleardi in the slot to take a one goal lead.
Moments later, the Everblades were able to capitalize again to take a two-goal lead on a second tally from Aleardi.
However, at the end of the period Icemen forward Jake Elmer rushed the puck up the ice and made a nice cross crease pass to forward Luke Lynch who batted the puck into the back of the net to pull Jacksonville within one. The goal ignited a celebration of thousands of plush toys for the Annual Teddy Bear Toss.
The second period saw a lot of back-and-forth action with both teams having sustained offensive zone pressure in spurts. The physicality, like with the last two games, picked up in the second frame as both teams were looking for any advantage they could find. Towards the end of the period, the Icemen had a powerplay opportunity, and while they got some pressure and offensive looks, were unable to capitalize.
A penalty-filled third period took place, and neither team sustained much of anything on any of their powerplay opportunities in the third frame. This aided in the eventual downfall for the Icemen. After getting the powerplay back intact, unfortunately, it went cold the past two games.
The Everblades would go on to score late in the period to make it a two-goal game as Icemen fell to the Everblades 3-1. The Icemen are back at home on Wednesday, December 1st at 7pm versus the Orlando Solar Bears. ###
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