JACKSONVILLE, Fla – Wednesday night, the Jacksonville Icemen faced the visiting South Carolina Stingrays, in a game that required overtime to determine the winner. South Carolina came out on top, taking a 3-2 OT victory.
South Carolina opened up the scoring with a power play goal from Tyson Empey, who tipped in the puck on a redirect shot from former Icemen player Michael Kim. Jacksonville’s Matheson Iacopelli evened things up 45 seconds later on a South Carolina turnover, for an unassisted goal, to make it a 1-1 game. With just over three minutes left in the first period, the Stingrays retook the lead, on a wrist shot from Kevin O’Neil, who picked up the puck on a broken pass.
After a scoreless second period, South Carolina kept Jacksonville off the board for the majority of the third period. With two and a half minutes left in the game, Jacksonville opted to pull their netminder for the extra attacker. Matheson Iacopelli scored on a blistering shot to even the score and force OT, from an offensive zone draw won by Derek Lodermeier.
The Icemen started the OT period on a power play, but were unable to capitalize with the man advantage. Josh Wilkins scored the game-winning goal for South Carolina, flipping a shot over the shoulder of Jacksonville’s netminder Michael Houser, for the win.
For an in depth game recap, click here
Check out this photo gallery from Inside The Rink’s Andrew Fielder, for highlights from the game.
