Jordan Power scored his first professional goal five minutes into the game, and John Parker-Jones brought the team within striking distance late, but the Jacksonville Icemen held off the Greenville Swamp Rabbits late, winning by a tight 3-2 score.
This was the final meeting between both teams this season, finishing a series of 13 matchups.
Power, in just his second professional game, got the Swamp Rabbits on the board first. Just 5:00 into the contest, Kyle Haskins contained the zone and forced the puck down low, allowing Brent Pedersen and Austin Saint to forecheck deep.
Pedersen fired the puck to the blue line, where Power rifled a shot through traffic from distance that beat Icemen goalie Matt Vernon, pushing the Swamp Rabbits to a 1-0 lead (Pedersen and Saint assisted). However, 2:31 later, the puck was lost behind the Swamp Rabbits net to Chris Grando, who found Olivier Nadeau all alone in front of the net.
Nadeau backhanded the puck immediately, lifting it over Swamp Rabbits net-minder Mattias Sholl to square the game at 1-1 at 7:31. Noah Laaouan gave the Icemen their only lead of the game with 7:07 left, breaking up the middle, uncontested, on a spring from Davis Koch in neutral ice. Laaouan outlasted Sholl and buried it, putting the Icemen up 2-1 (Koch and Vernon assisted).
Both teams didn’t inflict further damage on each other until the start of the third period. Just 2:46 into the final frame, the puck was turned over in-zone to Garrett Van Whye, who powered towards the net and slipped the puck past Sholl to give the Icemen some breathing room at 3-1.
John Parker-Jones brought the Swamp Rabbits within striking distance late, trying to spark a second comeback win in VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena. With 2:51 left, and Sholl to the bench for a Swamp Rabbits extra attacker, Dustin Geregach found Parker-Jones with space on the left side, then the latter uncorked a one-timer past Vernon to cut the deficit to 3-2.
With a power play late, and Sholl out for the extra skater again, the Swamp Rabbits tried to muster a tying strike, but fell short, falling 3-2.
Sholl stopped 30 of 33 shots on net in suffering the defeat, his first as a pro (1-1-0-0). Vernon made 22 saves.
(Photo by Nancy DeLander Beecher)
