JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The Jacksonville Icemen held their Hockey is For Everyone Night on Saturday and faced the visiting South Carolina Stingrays. In a tightly contested game, the Stingrays took a 3-2 victory for their tenth consecutive win, moving them back into the top spot in the South Division.
Former Jacksonville player Ben Hawerchuk dropped the gloves with Chase Lang early in the contest, with both players receiving five-minute fighting majors. South Carolina’s Erik Middendorf struck first at 10:32 of the first period on a left-circle centering feed from Josh Wilkins for Middendorf to one-time the puck past Matt Vernon.
Gloves would drop again early into the second period, with Jacksonville rookie Brody Crane and South Carolina rookie Dean Loukus receiving five-minute fighting majors. Jacksonville tied the game at 6:07 of the second on a goal by Ivan Chukarov, who took the puck past two Stingray players, cut it to the forehand behind another player, and snapped it under the bar past Mitchell Gibson. Just over two minutes later, South Carolina would take a 2-1 lead on a power play goal from Austin Magra, who picked up the rebound from Josh Wilkins and put it on net.
At just over two minutes into the third period, Chris Grando tied things up on the power play with a left-circle back pass from Davis Koch, with Grando one-timing a bullet shot past Gibson to make it 2-2. Less than three minutes later, Charlie Combs scored the gaming-winning goal for South Carolina at 4:45 of the period on a rebound shot from Austin Magera, which Romain Rodzinski poked the puck to Coombs who scored. With Vernon pulled from the net in the game’s closing minutes, Jacksonville tried to even things up, but to no avail, with South Carolina taking the victory.
The two team head back to South Carolina, where they will face of Sunday afternoon.
Check out this photo gallery from Inside The Rink’s Andrew Fielder, for highlights from the game.
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