Houser Shines in Icemen's 4-1 Win at Norfolk

NORFOLK, VA – Christopher Brown scored twice, while goaltender Michael Houser stopped 25 of 26 shots to lead the Jacksonville Icemen to a 4-1 defeat of the Norfolk Admirals at the Norfolk Scope Friday night. 

Right out of the gates the Admirals launched a barrage of shots on the Icemen net.  However, goaltender Michael Houser was in full control and turned away all 14 Norfolk shots in the opening period to preserve a scoreless game at the end of one. 

Jacksonville grabbed the game’s first goal during delayed penalty time on Norfolk.   Brendan Harris fielded a pass below the right circle and delivered a shot that clipped off the arm of Thomas Milic and into the net for the goal. 

In the waning second of the middle frame, the Icemen received power play opportunity.  Just seconds into their man advantage, the Icemen scored when Riley Fiddler-Schultz delivered a pass down low to Christopher Brown who batted the puck past Milic to extend the Jacksonville lead to 2-0 with just nine seconds remaining in the second period. 

The Icemen continued to build their lead in the third, when Jacob Panetta entered the zone with speed and darted past an Admirals defender.   Panetta then flexed a shot that hit the back of the Norfolk net to put Jacksonville out in front 3-0. 

Norfolk got on the board at 13:24 of the period when a point shot was directed and tipped into the net by veteran Mathieu Roy.  Roy’s 11^th goal of the season pulled Norfolk within two. 

The Icemen sealed the game with three minutes left with an empty-net tally from  Christopher Brown to put the score at its final of 4-1. 

Michael Houser was stellar in goal making 25 saves, while Brendan Harris posted two more points to extend his streak of consecutive multi-point games to four. 

The two teams meet again on Saturday at the Norfolk Scope at 6:05 p.m.