Written by Noah Epstein
ALLEN, TX -- The Icemen finished off a three-game sweep of the Americans on Saturday night, with Olivier Nadeau extending his goal streak to six straight games to help Jacksonville win 3-1.
Nadeau scored on a rebound - something he’s done a lot of in the past couple weeks. He’s now scored in six straight games, with eight goals in that span. He has 11 goals in his past 10 games and leads the team with 22 on the season.
Nadeau’s put-back goal occurred 91 seconds into the third period to give the Icemen a commanding 3-0 advantage.
Jacksonville scored the game’s first two goals in the second period, the beneficiaries being Bennett MacArthur and Christopher Brown.
MacArthur skated with the puck behind the goaltender Anson Thornton, maneuvered to the right circle, lost the puck for a moment, regained it and fired a wrister in the back of the net to get the Icemen on the board just over halfway through regulation.
Similar to the night prior, the Icemen were leading 1-0 in a competitive contest nearing the end of the second period while on the power play. And even more similarly, Jacksonville struck on the power play with under two seconds to go - 1.6 to be exact.
Brown found a loose puck that met his stick in the right circle, skated toward the net and sent a shot past Thornton just before the buzzer sounded - almost identical to the scenario revolving around Noah Laaouan’s power-play score on Friday.
The captain’s 18th goal of the season gave Jacksonville a two-goal lead after a couple periods.
Brown’s goal was the lone power-play goal for either side on Saturday, with the teams having a combined 13 man advantages. Jacksonville went 1-for-6, while Allen went 0-for-7.
The power-play kill was extremely effective for the Icemen all night long, not allowing a ton of chances and even having some shorthanded opportunities.
Kamerin Nault got Allen on the board over halfway through the third, eliminating the chance of Jacksonville recording a shutout on back-to-back nights.
Justen Close had a strong performance, saving 35 of 36 shots. The rookie started Thursday’s game against the Americans as well, so Close ended up saving 74 of 76 shots in the series and he picked up two victories.
The Icemen reached the 80-point threshold with the win, sweeping Allen and bringing the magic number to clinch a playoff berth down to eight.
Jacksonville will head back home to play at home for back-to-back nights this weekend against Orlando and Savannah.
Puck drop against the Solar Bears on Friday is 7 p.m.
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