Writte by Noah Epstein
ALLEN, TX -- Olivier Nadeau scored the game’s first three goals and Jacksonville scored five times in the third period, as the Icemen routed the Americans 9-1, tying a franchise record for goals in a single game.
Nadeau entered the evening with a three-game goal streak, having scored six goals in his past seven games. With his hat trick, he extended the streak to four games and has now scored nine goals in his last eight contests.
Nadeau scored both first-period goals for the Icemen, giving Jacksonville a 2-0 lead after one. He then started off the second period by cleaning up a rebound, making it 3-0 Icemen roughly halfway through regulation.
Following the hat trick, Nadeau leads the team with 20 goals on the season.
Liam Coughlin made it 4-0 a few minutes later before Allen scored its lone goal against Justen Close to bring the lead back down to three.
Close saved 39 of 40 shots in the game, picking up the win. Although a goaltender may not need to do much when his team scores nine goals, Close made several key stops against an Americans team that outshot the Icemen in two of the three periods.
The Icemen scored five goals in the third period, the final three scores coming three minutes apart. The third-period goals were scored by:
Chris Grando (17)
Christopher Brown (17)
Logan Cockerill (13)
Ivan Chukarov (5)
Brendan Harris (12)
Grando and Brown each had three-point games, both totalling a goal and a pair of assists.
Jacksonville finished off a dominant 9-1 win over Allen in the first game of a three-game series, in which the teams play three games in as many nights.
The Icemen tied a club record with nine goals, a feat that has happend three times, with the previous time taking place at Norfolk on March 29, 2022 where the Icemen won 9-3.
Jacksonville improved to 35-16-6 with the victory, bringing the magic number to clinch a postseason berth down to 16 points. The Icemen face off against the Americans once again Friday at 8 p.m. EST.
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