Saturday Night Five: Icemen Win OT Thriller in Greenville, 5-4

Written by Noah Epstein

GREENVILLE, S.C. -- Christopher Brown scored Jacksonville’s eighth power-play goal in the team’s last three games, finishing off a 5-4 overtime win in a thrilling back-and-forth contest against Greenville on Saturday night.

The Icemen entered the game with the third best road power play in the ECHL, owning a 24.4% success rate. They were coming off scoring six goals on the man advantage over their previous two games. And not much changed Saturday, with Jacksonville scoring its first and last goal with an extra skater on the ice.

Davis Koch scored the first power-play goal just over seven minutes into action, tying the game at 1. Koch was assisted by Brendan Harris and Garrett Van Wyhe.

Koch and Harris then assisted Bennett MacArthur’s sixth goal of the season, which gave the Icemen their first lead of the game with under a minute remaining in the opening period.

Five goals were scored in the second period, so buckle up.

Greenville scored goals within two minutes of each other to tie the game and then re-take a lead. John Parker-Jones scored at 5:40 and Quinn Olson made it 3-2 at 7:38.

Chase Lang then retaliated with his ninth goal at 11:38, leveling up the contest at 3. 

The two South Division clubs then traded goals toward the end of the period. 

Kaleb Lawrence, who scored the game’s first goal, scored on a Greenville power play at 13:53. He was assisted by Parker Berge, who leads Greenville with 28 assists, and Bryce Brodzinski, who is now tied for the most power-play points among rookies this season with 15.

The Icemen went back to the penalty kill when Ty Cheveldayoff was assessed a slashing penalty at 16:52. They weren’t allowing a ton of chances for the Swamp Rabbits, and ended up clearing the puck the length of the ice with 10 seconds remaining on the kill.

Kolby Hay, playing in just his fourth game in net for Greenville, came out of the goal to settle the puck and hand it off to a teammate. As Hay was leaving the puck behind the net, he failed to see Brendan Harris chasing after it. Harris stole the puck, shot it in the net with the back hand and scored in essentially an empty net just as time had expired on the penalty kill. The Icemen caught an enormous break and managed to tie the game at 4 before second intermission.

In a juxtaposition of the period prior, there was no scoring in the final stanza of regulation. Matt Vernon and Hay each had key saves throughout the period, with Vernon stopping all 14 shots sent his way and Hay saving 13/13. 

The game, deservedly so, headed to overtime.

Jacksonville possessed the puck for almost the entire first four minutes of the extra period. Greenville had two short possessions. Other than one shot on net for the Rabbits, it was all Icemen.

Just over two and a half minutes into overtime, Logan Cockerill entered the attacking zone at the left point with a burst of steam, maneuvering past the circle and behind the net. In doing so, Cockerill drew a hooking penalty from Berge, putting the Icemen on a 4-on-3 power play.

Roughly halfway through the man advantage, Noah Laaouan took the puck from the left circle to the high slot, opening up room for Brown to make his way to the left circle. Laaouan fed Brown, who sent a wrist shot one-timer past Hay to win the game for Jacksonville, 5-4.

Brown’s goal to clinch the victory was his 200th point with the Icemen, the first to reach that plateau in the eight-year history of the franchise.

With the game-winning feed, Laaouan extended his assist streak to seven straight games, tallying nine total in that span. It remains the longest active assist streak in the league.

The Icemen have now scored eight power-play goals in their past three games - four at South Carolina on Feb. 16, two at Orlando on Feb. 20 and another pair at Greenville on Saturday.

Jacksonville improved to 32-16-4 with the overtime win, becoming one point shy of second place in the South with 68.

The Icemen will now play Orlando on Wednesday for the 13th time this season, currently owning an 8-4 record against the Solar Bears. Puck drop is 7 p.m.