JACKSONVILLE (Florida Sports Wire) – The Jacksonville Icemen opened the season at home with a 3-1 victory over defending the ECHL champion Florida Everblades Saturday night. A record opening night crowd of 11,378 were on hand at Veterans Memorial Arena.
In the first period action, with Jacksonville on the power play, Christopher Brown redirected a pass for the first goal. Brown connected 13 seconds into the first power-play opportunity of the game for either team, striking at 8:50 of the first period. Florida took the first six shots on goal in the game, but both teams logged 12 shots over the first period.
The Icemen extended their lead in the second to 2-0 as they won the battle for the puck and took it to the net, goaltender Cam Johnson makes the initial save, but Brendan Harris put it home on the rebound.
The Everblades later added a goal by Logan Lambdin to pull within one. Lambdin banged home a Cole Moberg slapshot at the 11:57 mark, with Cam Hausinger earning his first assist in a Blades sweater.
Icemen scored on a power play goal in the third when Harris tallied his second goal of the game.
Jacksonville outshot the Everblades 11-4 in the third period and 42-22 for the game. Jacksonville’s Matt Vernon made 21 saves for the Icemen. Johnson finished with 39 stops.
Jacksonville plays at Orlando and Florida next weekend. The Blades will wrap up the season-opening three-game road trip on Thursday, Oct. 26 with the team’s second matchup of the year against the Orlando Solar Bears
