ORLANDO, Fla – The Jacksonville Icemen and Orlando Solar Bears went head-to-head Thursday night at the Kia Center in downtown Orlando. The Solar Bears headed into the game, sitting one point back in 5th place in the South Division, fighting to stay in contention for the playoffs. However the 3rd and 4th place teams are both tied on points, so a win would move them into the 3rd. Jacksonville took a 5-4 victory, denying the much needed points for Orlando.
Jacksonville had a great first period, with goals from Luc Brown at the 5:40 mark and Chris Grando at the 12:52 mark, to go up 2-0.
Tyler Bird scored just 35 seconds into the second period to make it a one-goal game, but the Icemen would score two minutes later on a goal from Logan Cockerill to go back up by two again. Orlando’s Alex Frye scored the first of two goals on the night at the 8:42 mark, but once again, Jacksonville would come back with a power play goal by Riley Fiddler-Schultz at the 14:20 mark to go up 4-2, headed into the third period.
Olivier Nadeau made it 5-2, just inside the halfway point of the third period at the 10:39 mark. Orlando players appeared to lack energy, but a 10 minute misconduct penalty against Orlando’s Tyler Bird seemed ignite the team, who scored two goals less the a minute a part. The first by Aaron Luchuk at 14:31 and the second by Alex Frye at 15:27 for his second of the night. In a tense final few minutes of the game, Jacksonville were able to hang on to the lead, even with Orlando’s netminder pulled and the last seven seconds on the penalty kill with Orlando having a two-man advantage.
Check out this photo gallery from Inside The Rink’s Andrew Fielder, for highlights from the game.
