JACKSONVILLE, Fla – Friday night, the Jacksonville Icemen faced the Atlanta Gladiators. Jacksonville dominated the game, taking a 7-2 victory and outshooting Atlanta 40-9.
Jacksonville hit the ground running, scoring three goals within the first nine minutes of the game, and outshooting Atlanta 15-1 in the period. Damien Giroux tallied the first goal for the Icemen at the 1:39 mark, followed by captain Christopher Brown who scored on the power play from a second rebound shot. Logan Cockerill gave Jacksonville the 3-0 lead at the 8:45 mark of the first, with the Icemen controlling the play throughout the entire period.
Atlanta would switch their netminder headed into the second period, to shake things up for the team. A power play opportunity late in the second period for Atlanta fell flat, with a short-handed goal by Jacksonville’s Derek Lodermeier to make it a 4-0 game.
A goal by Garrett Van Wyhe less than two minutes into the third period gave Jacksonville a 5-0 lead. Atlanta turned up the pressure and scored two goals a little over a minute apart by Robert Calisti and then by Jay Powell to make it 5-2. Jacksonville took back control of the game and with multiple penalty minutes dished out to Atlanta, Brendan Harris and Luc Brown would score power play goals. With frustrated Atlanta players letting the emotions get the best of them, Atlanta ended the game with 68 penalty minutes, compared to Jacksonville’s six. Jacksonville have now scored 24 goals in their last four games.
Check out this photo gallery from Inside The Rink’s Andrew Fielder, for highlights from the game.
