Estero Uh-Oh: Everblades complete comeback, end Icemen's ECHL playoffs in Game 7

For Jacksonville Icemen fans, not again.

Not after trouncing the Florida Everblades with a 9-1-1 record throughout the regular season. Not after building a 3-games-to-1 lead in their first-round Kelly Cup postseason series.

Well, it happened again: The Icemen's latest postseason case of the Estero uh-ohs returned, and now the First Coast's hockey postseason is no more.

Swamped during another nightmare of a second period, and chopped by the Florida Everblades for the third time in as many years, the Icemen exited the playoffs with a 4-0 loss in Wednesday night's Game 7 of the ECHL first-round series inside VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena.

Three times on the brink of elimination, the Everblades poured on three goals in four minutes to advance to the South Division finals against the fourth-seeded Orlando Solar Bears, who toppled the Greenville Swamp Rabbits in six games.

"Once they score one," Icemen coach Nick Luukko said, "they smell blood."

A season that saw the Icemen rise to the top of the ECHL South Division for much of the season, posting the league's best defensive record until the final weekend, is over in all-too-familiar fashion.

Everblades over Icemen in 2022. Everblades over Icemen in 2023 . And now, even after Jacksonville won three of the first four in the series, even after Jacksonville ruled the regular-season matchups with nine wins in 11 games, it's Everblades over Icemen in 2024.

"We worked so hard for this moment. We pushed a two-time defending champion to Game 7, three chances to close it out and get the job done," said forward Craig Martin, the longest-tenured player on the Icemen. "So obviously, it's heartbreaking."

SECOND PERIOD SINKS JACKSONVILLE

Call Wednesday a rerun of Tuesday's Game 6. Another early Everblades goal in the second period. Another disastrous turnover. Another meltdown in the middle 20 minutes.

Over the seven-game series, the Icemen allowed one goal in first periods, one goal in third periods, one goal in overtime — but 13 in second periods.

"For whatever reason, our second periods weren't there this series," Martin said. "It was kind of our Achilles' heel, and it came back to bite us again."

Jacksonville had survived the first period without damage despite a scarcity of real scoring opportunities (only six shots), but that changed moments after the intermission.

Will Reilly skated up from defense through a seam in the Icemen defense, received a slick pass from Josh Ho-Sang, cut back and finished from close range past Matt Vernon at 2:24 of the second period.

That opened the floodgates, much as the Everblades had done at the 5:04 mark of Tuesday's 4-1 Game 6.

The Everblades scored twice more in rapid succession, the first disputed — officials reviewed to determine whether Logan Lambdin was interfering with Vernon on Sean Josling's blast from outside at 4:36, but decided that Lambdin had been checked into Vernon by Jacksonville defenseman Garret Cockerill.

But there was no doubt at the 6:26 mark, when Jacksonville turned over the net, Lambdin poked the puck to the inside and Cam Darcy made no mistake. Against an Everblades team with postseason grit as its primary trump card, winner of the Kelly Cup in 2022 and 2023, that was practically game over.

"You've got to be able to roll with the punches," Luukko said. "Those guys know how to do it best and always find their stride at the right time."

JOHNSON STARS FOR EVERBLADES

If the series had an MVP award, Everblades goaltender Cam Johnson would have won it.

The Everblades' near-impenetrable netminder turned away everything in sight, including an acrobatic stop off a 2-on-0 break for Jerry D'Amigo and Garrett Van Wyhe late in the second period.

Even when the Icemen hit the net in the second period, officials waved off the score, ruling that Derek Lodermeier had jarred the puck loose from Johnson's glove after the whistle had blown.

Around the net, the Icemen stayed ice-cold. In their last 191 minutes of hockey in the series, Jacksonville scored only twice against a defended net — Ryan Scarfo's final goal in Game 4 was an empty-netter. Lining up without leading scorer Brendan Harris, who appeared only once in the series, and Riley Fiddler-Schultz, unavailable for all seven games, the Icemen played like a team missing two of their most dynamic scoring threats, accounting for a combined 44 goals and 65 assists in the season.

Johnson, who led the ECHL with 27 wins and a 2.21 goals-against average and placed second with a .921 save percentage during the regular season, capped his series with 27 saves on Wednesday.

ICEMEN EYES ON 2025

No missed opportunity stood out more than a four-minute power play in the second period, after Florida defenseman Zach Uens whacked Icemen forward Logan Cockerill with a high stick and picked up a double minor.

Instead, the Icemen first threw away the power play, when Matheson Iacopelli got called for interference on Darcy, and then gave up a short-handed blast by Cole Moberg moments after Iacopelli had left the box. With Johnson in control, the Icemen rarely looked like coming back.

"I thought they were a little bit deeper," Luukko said, "and it kind of wore us down as the series went on."

Now, with nearly six months until hockey's return, the Icemen now turn their attention toward building for 2024-25, with roster decisions to come during the late spring and early summer.

In the defensive stats and in the attendance count, highest in the 28-team ECHL, the Icemen have found the winning numbers. But once regular season turns into postseason, it's the Everblades who have their number.

How do the Icemen change that? They have a full offseason to think about it.

"We've got a good thing going down here," Luukko said. "We've got a good core and we've got a good group of characters."

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Estero Uh-Oh: Everblades complete comeback, end Icemen's ECHL playoffs in Game 7