JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The Savannah Ghost Pirates, proud ECHL affiliate of the Florida Panthers, defeated the Jacksonville Icemen 2–1 in overtime on Saturday night at VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena.
Savannah opened the scoring on a 5-on-3 power play in the first period when Reece Vitelli rifled a shot in from the right side to give the Ghost Pirates a 1–0 lead. Dennis Cesana and Nicholas Zabaneh recorded the assists on the lone goal of the period. The helper marked Cesana’s 100th professional point.
Neither team scored in the second period, highlighted by Savannah successfully killing off more than two minutes of 5-on-3 power-play time to preserve the one-goal advantage.
Jacksonville evened the score with 1:50 remaining in regulation while skating with the extra attacker. Lincoln Griffin tipped in a shot from Adam McMaster to tie the game at 1–1 and force overtime.
In the extra session, the Ghost Pirates killed off a penalty before capitalizing on the ensuing play. Tristan Amonte tipped in a Vitelli shot to secure the 2–1 victory. Evan Nause earned the secondary assist on the game-winning goal.
Noah Giesbrecht picked up his first ECHL win, stopping 39 of 40 shots. Cameron Rowe made 30 saves on 32 shots for Jacksonville.
The Ghost Pirates conclude the weekend Sunday afternoon when they travel to Greenville to face the Swamp Rabbits. Puck drop is scheduled for 3:05 p.m. ET. The game will be streamed live on FloHockey and broadcast on Mixlr. Tickets and additional information about upcoming home games are available at ghostpirateshockey.com.
— GHOST PIRATES —
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