JACKSONVILLE, Fla – Sunday evening, the Jacksonville Icemen and Florida Everblades faced off for Game 2 of the South Division Finals. Florida took a 4-3 victory and now leads the best-of-seven series 2-0.
A roughing minor penalty just 12 seconds into the game to Jacksonville’s Travis Howe allowed Florida to capitalize on the power-play with a goal from Sean Josling 23 seconds into the game. Having been outplayed the night before, Jacksonville went on the offense immediately, dominating the period with hard hits and outshooting Florida 16-9. A goal by Jacksonville’s Matheson Iacopelli at the 11:22 mark would tie up the game. Still, a bad turnover in the final minute of the period led to a second Florida goal by Oliver Chau.
Jacksonville dominated in the second period, outshooting Florida 16-8. Ben Hawerchuk evened the score up at the 16:42 mark of the period on a rebound shot from Jacob Friend, but Florida would respond with a high-tip in goal from Logan Lambdin with just over a minute left in the period to regain the lead.
In a more evenly matched third period, Jacksonville’s Jacob Panetta tied the game up early into the period. Joe Pendenza scored the game-winning goal for Florida at the 16:53 mark on a rebound shot from Ben Masella. In the final minute of play, Jacksonville pulled their netminder Parker Gahagen, but to no avail.
Jacksonville played a hard-fought game, outplaying Florida and outshooting them 43-28. Still, with some miscues that Florida capitalized on and with netminder Cam Johnson coming up big throughout the game, Florida would prevail with the win. The series moves to Estero for the next three games, starting on Wednesday at 7:30 p.m.
Check out this photo gallery from Field Pass Hockey’s Andrew Fielder for highlights from the game.
