JACKSONVILLE, FL- The Jacksonville Icemen defeated the Florida Everblades 3-2 on Friday night at Veterans Memorial Arena as goaltender Francois Brassard picked up 28 saves while Ara Nazarian scored twice.
The Icemen got off to a good start in the first period as they had some extra motivation for this rivalry game. The Icemen had some sustained offensive zone pressure early which helped them get the first goal of the game. Jacksonville’s Brendan Harris passed the puck to Ara Nazarian in the slot, and he buried the quick wrist shot to take the early lead.
Moments later, the Everblades would strike back as Jake Jaremko redirected a pass to tie up the game at one apiece.
In the second period, the Icemen weathered an Everblades storm for a few minutes, but scored again as Ara Nazarian came down on another 2-on-1 and snapped the puck home from the right faceoff dot to regain the one goal lead.
A little over halfway throughout the third period each team skated 4-on-4 as the teams were given matching minor penalties. While having the extra ice, Jacksonville was able to convert as Luke Lynch found Austin McEneny in the slot and he buried a quick wrist shot to go up by a commanding two-goal lead.
Moments later, off of a crazy play in front of the Icemen goal, the Everblades scored as Florida’s McDonald brought themselves back within one goal, banking the puck off of Icemen goaltender Francois Brassard.
Florida would pull their goaltender to get an extra attacker out, but it would not matter as Jacksonville was stellar defensively to close out the game. The Icemen won 3-2 while being outshot 30-20.
The two teams meet again on Saturday, March 26th at 7pm at Veterans Memorial Arena. The Annual Guns n’ Hoses game takes place at 3:00 p.m.
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