ESTERO, Fla. — The Jacksonville Icemen found themselves down 3-0 in the team's second round Kelly Cup Playoffs series against the defending champion Florida Everblades heading into Friday night's Game 4 down in Estero.
They didn't panic, however, as they went on to win Game 4 in thrilling fashion 4-3 in overtime before cruising past the Everblades 6-3 to in Game 5 to force a Game 6 back in Jacksonville Monday night.
Brendan Harris shot the backside game winner in OT Friday night and added another goal in the Icemen's Game 5 win.
Christopher Brown, Derek Lodermeier and Craig Martin all scored in the Game 5 victory and Icemen goalie Parker Gahagen had 32 saves in the net.
The Everblades swept the Icemen 4-0 in last year's second round of the playoffs so the Icemen are hoping to flip the script this time around.
And now they have all the momentum and a home ice advantage on their side.
"Great effort from the net out. Everybody was going tonight. Complete effort. Yeah, I mean Lodes a couple goals there. I think a big part of the game was it was a 2-2 game in the second they were kind of getting momentum. We get the power play and the power play comes up huge for us again, going one for one tonight," head coach Nick Luukko said after the Game 5 win.
"Getting the win yesterday was huge. I think it allowed us just to believe. Obviously this has been a tough team that's been difficult to overcome last year and this year as well, so yesterday was a step in the right direction and today we just continued that momentum," Gahagen said following the Game 5 victory.
The puck drops for Game 6 Monday, May 15 at 7pm at VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena.