JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A goal by Brenden Harris during the first period of the game triggered the throwing of 15,302 plush teddy bears and stuffed animals onto the ice Friday night, as the Jacksonville Icemen held their Teddy Bear Toss game against the Florida Everblades. In the second of a three-game back-to-back series, with the first two games being held in Jacksonville, the Icemen took a 4-2 victory. The game was also broadcast for the first ever time, on local TV (MyTV JAX 30).
The goal by Harris in the first period came at the 15:53 mark. Florida’s netminder Will Cranley stopped the initial shot, but the puck popped up high off his shoulder and came down right behind him, bouncing into the net to start the teddy bears raining down onto the ice. With two seconds left in the period, Florida equalized on a goal from Colton Hargrove, on a feed from Colin Theisen.
In period two, Jonathan Hampton scored his first pro-career goal at 3:38 on a center pass feed from Ty Cheveldayoff, who picked off the puck from an Everblades player who had lost his footing and fallen over. Chris Grando made it 3-1 at 11:46 on a two-on-one play with Garrett Van Wyhe. Moments before, at the other end of the ice, Grando had lost his helmet and had placed it back on his head. As he skated toward the bench, the two-on-one ensued, so he joined the rush and picked up the feed from Van Wyhe to bury the puck. Icemen captain Christopher Brown scored a shorthanded breakaway goal at 15:06 for the Icemen’s fourth shorthanded goal of the year, to put them up 4-1.
Florida’s Colton Hargrove scored a powerplay goal at 5:38 of the third period for his second of the night. Despite multiple powerplay opportunities and pulling their netminder, the Everblades could not cut the deficit. Both teams had 24 shots in the game.
The two teams will face off in Estero on Saturday night for the Everblades Teddy Bear Toss game.
Check out this photo gallery from Inside The Rink’s Andrew Fielder, for highlights from the game.
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