Written by Noah Epstein
DULUTH, GA -- The Icemen dropped their final road game of the regular season on Sunday, allowing three second-period goals and losing to the Gladiators, 3-2.
After Dalton Duhart scored his first goal with Jacksonville in the opening period to make it 1-0, the Icemen went scoreless for over 40 minutes.
In the meantime, Atlanta scored three times – all in the middle stanza.
Joey Cipollone, who had two goals in Greenville the night prior, scored his 15th of the season to tie things up. Cipollone’s goal at 6:29 was his fourth against the Icemen this season, which leads the way for the Gladiators.
Later in the period, Atlanta scored two goals in the span of 1:22 – from Anthony Firriolo (4) and Tyler Drevitch (2).
Over the first two periods, the Icemen struggled offensively. But seemingly anytime they had a chance, a shot was turned aside by Ethan Haider, who was fantastic on Sunday. Haider saved 29 of 31 shots, making key stop after key stop to keep Atlanta in front heading into the third period.
Jacksonville’s offense was lackluster in the final period, mustering up just eight shots on net – a handful of which were toward the end when the squad was in desperate need of a goal.
The Icemen ended up breaking through with 98 seconds remaining in the third – courtesy of Olivier Nadeau’s team-leading 27th goal of the season. Nadeau tipped a shot from Bennett MacArthur past Haider to cut the deficit to one goal. They had several chances in the remaining minute and change to tie the game, pulling the goalie Justen Close and firing off a ton of good looks, but the Icemen were unable to and fell 3-2 in Duluth.
Jacksonville will host the final three games of the regular season next weekend, taking on Savannah for two and Orlando for one. Puck drop against the Ghost Pirates on Friday is 7 p.m.
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