Written by Jake Wheeler
ORLANDO, FL- Goaltender Francois Brassard made 24 saves to pick up the shutout win to lead the Jacksonville Icemen to 3-0 victory over the Orlando Solar Bears Thursday evening.
The Solar Bears controlled all of the offensive zone pressure early in the first period recing out to a12-3 shots on goal advantage, but Jacksonville gained a little more offensive zone pressure late, and grabbed the final six shots of the period.
The Icemen carried some of that momentum into the second period and received their first powerplay of the game. Defenseman Pavel Vorobei one-timed a pass from defenseman Sean Giles and buried it past Brad Barone to take the first lead of the contest. The physicality picked up in the second as Berzolla had a huge hit on Orlando’s Langan and following a whistle Langan tried to fight Berzolla and each player was called for a penalty. The Icemen took the 1-0 lead after two periods.
The Icemen got off to a great start in the third period. A few minutes in, Icemen forward Jake Elmer skated down the right-wing boards and made a cross crease pass to defenseman Roshen Jaswal and he buried it to take a two-goal lead.
The Icemen were called for another penalty as Ethan Szypula went to the box, but Jacksonville was able to remain perfect on the penalty kill and killed off the penalty. The Icemen took a commanding three-goal lead after forward Derek Lodermeier deked around a defenseman and backhanded the puck past Barone.
The Icemen defense along with Brassard closed out the remainder of the period to preserve the 3-0 shutout victory. Brassard stopped all 24 shots faced en route to his first ECHL shutout.
The Icemen are back at home on Saturday, March 12th at 7pm versus the Greenville Swamp Rabbits.
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