JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The Savannah Ghost Pirates, proud ECHL affiliate of the Florida Panthers, fell 4–2 to the Jacksonville Icemen on Friday night at VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena.
Savannah opened the scoring at the 6:23 mark of the first period when Evan Nause took a feed from Logan Drevitch, carried the puck into the zone and tucked a backhand past the goaltender to give the Ghost Pirates a 1–0 lead. Ryan Sullivan earned the secondary assist.
Jacksonville tied the game a few minutes later on the power play as Christopher Brown wristed a shot through traffic from the right side to make it 1–1.
The Ghost Pirates regained the lead with 2:21 remaining in the first period on their own power play. Drevitch fired a pass to the front of the net where Nicholas Zabaneh redirected it home to make it 2–1. Will Riedell picked up the additional assist.
Despite six total power plays in the second period, neither team found the back of the net and Savannah carried a 2–1 lead into the third.
The Icemen tied the game 3:06 into the final frame when Craig Martin tipped in a Taos Jordan point shot to even the score at 2–2.
Jacksonville took its first lead of the night with 1:54 remaining as Matteo Costantini scored from the slot to make it 3–2. Bennett MacArthur added an empty-net goal to seal the 4–2 final.
Cameron Rowe earned the win for Jacksonville, stopping 20 of 22 shots. Vinnie Purpura made 17 saves on 20 shots for Savannah.
The Ghost Pirates return home Friday to open Youth Sports Weekend against the Orlando Solar Bears at Enmarket Arena. Puck drop is scheduled for 7 p.m. ET. The game will be streamed live on FloHockey, televised on WJCL 22 and broadcast on Mixlr. Tickets and additional information are available at ghostpirateshockey.com.
— GHOST PIRATES —
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