JACKSONVILLE, FLORIDA –. David Vallorani scored his 20th goal of the season but the Brampton Beast went on to drop a narrow 4-3 contest against the Jacksonville Icemen on Saturday night.
The Brampton Beast continued their five-game southern rod trip with a Saturday night date against the Jacksonville Icemen. Brampton entered the evening on a high note, winning their past four games.
Brampton took an early 1-0 lead with the 20th goal of the season off the stick of David Vallorani. Forward David Pacan stole the puck in the offensive zone and found Vallorani who sent the puck south of the bar at the 4:00 mark.
Jacksonville fired back and tipped a goal home from Alexis D’Aoust on the power play to even the score 1-1 at 12:42. Netminders Evan Fitzpatrick and Adam Carlson made some big stops in the first to keep it tied after 20 minutes of play.
Brampton found themselves trailing in shots by a tally of 13-6 heading inot the first intermission.
The second period began with the Icemen taking a 2-1 lead with a power play goal scored by Bobby Lynch.
The Beast were able to fire right back, this time off the stick of forward Erik Bradford. Lindsay Sparks took possession of the puck in the corner and found Bradford streaking into open space. He fired it home and tied the game 2-2 at 4:06.
The rest of the period didn’t go Brampton’s way, as Pierre-Luc Mercier and Chase Lang found twine off defensive miscues and extended the Icemen lead to 4-2 after 40 minutes of play. Shots on goal were 21-14 for Jacksonville.
The third period saw the Beast get on the board early with a power play marker from Jackson Leef. The forward slid home the puck to pull the Beast within one at 2:06.
That would be all the scoring the third would see, as Brampton wasn’t able to convert on a lengthy man advantage in the middle of the frame. Fitzpatrick was pulled late but the Beast weren’t able to find the tying goal and dropped the contest 4-3.
Fitzpatrick finished the evening with 21 saves and would be tagged with the loss. Carlson received the win with 23 saves of his own.
Notes: Molson Three Stars 3) Mercier (JAX) 2) D’Aoust (JAX) 1) Lang (JAX) Brampton finished the night one-for-four on the power play. Jacksonville ended up going two-for-five. The Beast will finish their road swing with a game against the Atlanta Gladiators tomorrow afternoon. Puck drops at 2:00 PM.