As time winded down Friday night the IceGators found themselves in a difficult and all too familiar situation, down a man on a penalty and facing an extra attacker against a goalie-less Ice Flyer's powerplay. The Ice Flyers fired shot after shot in the final minute of play but Scott Darling came out with big saves to give the Gators their second win on the season. Darling came up with a few huge saves on garbage plays infront of the net to keep the IceGators alive. The Ice Flyers made a valiant effort in the last period, outshooting the Gators 21-7. This win makes the IceGators 2-2 on the season, which is the first time they have been .500 since their ECHL years.
In a slow dump and chase, pretty uneventful, hockey game the Gators found themselves on the better end of a stat that they have had a trouble with - penalites. The Gators only commited 3 penalties in the contest but failed to kill them off, letting in two goals shorthanded. The IceGators started the scoring after Don Melyk stole the puck in the Gators end and passed it up ice to Trevor Karasiewicz, who let the 2 on 1 break with Beau McLaughlin. Karasiewicz slid the puck across to McLaughlin and he managed to do the same thing that he did against Ice Flyer goalie Ryan Scott that he did in their first meeting- banked the shot off the post then off of Scott's back for the score. In the second period, Dj Fimiani made a very heads up play after a scramble infront of the Ice Flyer's net. Even though Fimiani was at a bad angle, he knew Ryan Scott was laying down out of postition, so he threw a backhander on net that found its way into the goal for the 2-0 lead. After the Ice Flyers scored a power play goal, Karasiewicz sent a beautiful pass to McNeil infront of the net that put it home to go up 3-1. The IceFlyers fought back in the third period but only managed to score one, and the game ended 3-2 on a flurry of shots.
The IceGators will travel to Biloxi tommorow night to take on the Surge once again and they look to be above .500 for the first time in the SPHL.