JACKSONVILLE, Fla – Saturday night, in front of a sold-out crowd of 12,467 people, the Jacksonville Icemen kicked off their 2024-25 season against the consecutive three-time Kelly Cup Champions, the Florida Everblades. Florida took a 3-1 overtime victory after coming back from a 2-0 deficit.
Jacksonville took a 1-0 lead early into the first period on a goal from Logan Cockerill, who went from his forehand to backhand to slip the puck past Cam Johnson for the early advantage. He was assisted by Brenden Harris and the twenty-year-old rookie, Brody Crane.
In the second period, Cockerill scored his second goal at the 3:51 mark during a four-on-four play, as both teams had a player in the penalty box. A little over four minutes later, Oliver Chau cut the deficit to one to put Florida on the board after tapping his rebound past Jacksonville’s netminder, Matt Vernon.
Andrew Fyten evened things up just past the halfway point of the third period, to finish regulation tied 2-2, sending the game to OT and earning each team a point.
Anton Malmström scored the game-winner for Florida just over two minutes into the three-on-three seven-minute OT period after Jacksonville’s Zach Jordan broke his stick and could not defend. Florida outshot Jacksonville 23-16.
Jacksonville will next travel to Tahoe to face the new Tahoe Knight Monsters team in back-to-back games on Thursday and Friday.
Check out this photo gallery from Inside The Rink’s Andrew Fielder, for highlights from the game.
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