JACKSONVILLE, FL – A record opening night crowd of 11,378 were on hand at Vystar Veterans Memorial Arena to witness the Jacksonville Icemen defeat the Florida Everblades 3-1 Saturday evening. Forward Brendan Harris led the way with two goals in the contest.
The Icemen opened up the scoring in the first period on the power play and Captain Christopher Brown beautifully redirected a pass from Riley Fiddler-Schultz beautifully into the net past Florida goaltender Cam Johnson for the opening goal of the contest.
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The Icemen added to their lead in the first minute of the second period, when they won a battle for the puck along the boards and skated it to the net. Brown snapped a shot that Johnson was able to save, but the Icemen's Brendan Harris put home on the rebound on the backhand to make it a 2-0 Jacksonville lead.
Later in the period, the Everblades added a goal to pull within one. Cole Moberg delivered a shot from the right circle, that was stopped by Icemen netminder Matt Vernon, but the rebound was collected by Logan Lambdin who tapped the puck into the net to make it a 2-1 game.
The Icemen seized control of the third period and limited the Everblades to just four shots on net. Jacksonville grabbed an insurance goal in the third on the power play thanks to some clean stretch passing across the slot to a wide-open Brendan Harris who clipped the puck into the net past a diving Cam Johnson for the tally to seal it for the Icemen 3-1.
Matt Vernon stopped 21 of 22 shots to earn his first professional win, while Cam Johnson suffers the loss despite sound outing making 39 saves on 42 shots faced.
The Icemen hits the road next weekend to play at Orlando on Friday and at Florida on Saturday. Fans can catch all Icemen game broadcasts at www.mixlr.com/jaxicemen or watch online at FloHockey.TV
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