Written by Jake Wheeler
JACKSONVILLE, FL- The Jacksonville Icemen defeated the Atlanta Gladiators 4-1 as goaltender Francois Brassard made 31 saves to pick up the win while forwards Derek Lodermeier, Ara Nazarian, Craig Martin and Vladislav Mikhalchuk scored goals for Jacksonville.
After killing a couple of Atlanta power plays, Icemen forward Derek Lodermeier got the scoring started as he won a puck battle and took a quick snapshot from the left faceoff dot to take the first lead of the game. The Icemen took that 1-0 lead into the first break.
The Icemen got off to another great start in the second period as just over three minutes in forward Ara Nazarian buried the rebound from forward Craig Martin’s shot from the point.
Minutes later, the Icemen went back to the penalty kill as forward Ben Hawerchuk went off for two minutes. Moments later, defenseman Sean Giles joined him which resulted in a 5-on-3 powerplay for the Gladiators. Atlanta was unable to generate anything going with the man advantage and Jacksonville was able to kill off both penalties and preserve a 2-0 lead in the second intermission.
The Icemen got off to a slower start in the third period as the Gladiators started their push to try and get back into the game. Just over a minute in, the Gladiators Kamerin Nault took a quick wrist shot from the point which caught Icemen goaltender Francois Brassard off guard as Atlanta got on the board to pull within one.
Each team had a powerplay prior to the halfway mark of the period but neither team could capitalize on the man advantage. Late in the period Atlanta pulled their goaltender and Jacksonville made them pay as forward Craig Martin corralled a pass from forward Ben Hawerchuk to take a two-goal lead.
With just a second left in the game, Icemen forward Vladislav Mikhalchuk went on a breakaway and scored on a wrist shot from the slot to go up by three goals. Jacksonville won the game 4-1 while being slightly outshot 32-28.
The Icemen play at home on Saturday, March 19th at 7pm against the Atlanta Gladiators.
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