JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The Jacksonville Icemen Lizard Kings faced the visiting South Carolina Stingrays Saturday for the second night of their throwback Lizard Kings Weekend. Jacksonville played as the Lizard Kings, who originally played in Jacksonville from 1995-2000. Like the previous night, the announcers, rosters, scoreboards, and jerseys all referred to the team as the Lizard Kings, with nineties music played during the stoppages in play and intermissions. The Lizard Kings took a 5-1 win over the Stingrays thanks to a two-goal performance from Logan Cockerill and some stellar saves from netminder Matt Vernon.
The Lizard Kings jumped to an early lead three minutes into the game when Logan Cockerill one-timed the puck into the back of the net on a pass from Ivan Chukarov. South Carolina’s lone goal came at 11:59 of the first period on the man advantage, from a slap shot by Kyler Kupka for his 16th of the season, set up by Josh Wilkins and Zac Funk.
Jacksonville took the lead in the second period when Olivier Nadeau deflected the puck past Seth Eisele on a slapshot from Chris Grando to make it. Grando has eight points in the last three games, with five goals and two assists. Noah Laaouan made it 3-1 halfway through the period on a long slap through traffic in front of the net. The Stingrays applied offensive zone pressure throughout the period, but Vernon stood tall, stopping the puck from crossing the blue line.
A wrist shot from Robert Calisti gave Jacksonville a 4-1 lead 3:49 into the third period. Frustrations would boil over for South Carolina, with several fights initiated by their players, leading to several penalties. Logan Cockerill netted his second of the night with a power-play goal that he buried in the back of the net on another one-time pass from Ivan Chukarov again.
Jacksonville’s next four games are all on the road. They take on the Orlando Solar Bears on Tuesday, January 14th, and then head north to play three games against the Reading Royals. They return home to face Orlando on January 25th in Jacksonville. South Carolina’s next game is against the Greenville Swamp Rabbits.
Check out this photo gallery from Inside The Rink’s Andrew Fielder, for highlights from the game.
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