JACKSONVILLE, Fla – Saturday night, the Jacksonville Icemen faced the South Carolina Stingrays, in their first meeting of the season. Jacksonville beat South Carolina 5-3, in a game that featured three game misconducts and an action packed final two and a half minutes that saw four goals; two from each team.
Icemen netminder Justen Close, who had his first pro career shutout the night before was expected to get the night off, but a late night call-up to the AHL’s Rochester Americans for Matt Vernon, meant Close was between the pipes again. Brian Wilson from the SPHL’s Huntsville Havoc got the call up to join Jacksonville.
Ivan Chukarov had the first tally of the night at 10:02 of the first period, for his first goal of the season. This was the first of two goals for Chukarov, earning him the #1 star of the game. The goal came from a 360-degree spin backhand pass from Logan Cockerill, with Chukarov going from backhand to forehand to score the goal. Jacksonville’s Garrett Van Wyhe was given a game misconduct for an elbow to the head of Jayden Lee during the period.
Jacksonville went up 2-0 in the second period with a goal from Liam Coughlin at 4:20, for his first of the season. Stingrays’ netminder Mitchell Gibson stopped the initial shot from Brody Crane, but the deflection went of the leg of Coughlin and into the net. South Carolina made it a one-goal game when Kyler Kupka scored at 12:43. Jacksonville’s captain, Christopher Brown, gave the Icemen a two-goal cushion again, with a goal late in the second period, for his second goal of the season.
The third period came down to the excitement of the final three-minutes of the game; four goals, one fight and two game misconducts. South Carolina pulled their netminder for the extra attacker which allowed Jayden Lee to bring South Carolina within one at 17:28. With their netminder still pulled, Jacksonville’s Ivan Chukarov netted his second for the night, with an empty net goal just over a minute later at 18:31 making it a 4-2 game. An undeterred South Carolina team continued to battle on and with an extra attacker still on the ice, they pulled within one again, on a goal from Jamie Engelbert at 19:44. With five seconds left in the game, Jacksonville’s Brenden Harris scored yet another empty net goal for Jacksonville, to make it 5-2, and spoil any chances for South Carolina to send it to overtime. Things still weren’t done as with three seconds left on the clock, and right as the puck was about to be dropped, South Carolina’s Justin Nachbaur received a unsportsmanlike penalty and a double minor spearing attempt penalty. This was immediately followed by a fight between South Carolina’s captain Jacob Graves and Ty Cheveldayoff. This was Cheveldayoff’s first ever pro fight, which he dominated much to the surprise of Graves. Both players were given a game misconduct for fighting prior to the puck drop. South Carolina outshot Jacksonville 39-25, but Justen Close is proving to be a great goaltending pick for Jacksonville.
Jacksonville’s next game is their school day game, against the Orlando Solar Bears on Thursday November 14th at 10:30 a.m.
Check out this photo gallery from Inside The Rink’s Andrew Fielder, for highlights from the game.
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