After a nine day Christmas break, the St. John’s IceCaps are back on the road, and are set to face four teams in eight days.
They started the trip on Boxing Day with back-to-back games against the Toronto Marlies, first with a 5-2 loss due to a holiday turkey hangover but quickly redeemed themselves the following day with a 5-4 victory with just 36 seconds left in the game.
December 30th – Taking on the Rochester Americans
The IceCaps last faced the Amerks at the start of their four-game home stand, on December 11th and 12th. During their first game the IceCaps dominated early, putting 22 shots on net in the first period. Jacob de la Rose was the only one able to get the puck past Nathan Lieuwen during the shooting frenzy, scoring the IceCaps’ lone goal. It was his first of the season after missing 11 games due to injury. Despite the impressive salvo, and Zachary Fucale stopping 25 of 27 shots, the game ended in a 3-1 loss for the IceCaps. It was their first regulation loss at home this season.
In the second game the shots were even keel, but discipline was an issue. Captain Gabriel Dumont got his team on the board first, assisted by Jeremy Gregoire and de la Rose. Stefan Fournier was next to score for the IceCaps. but they soon ran out of steam. Eddie Pasquale managed to save 32 of 35 shots, but it wasn’t enough for the win. The Americans won the game 3-2 in overtime.
December 31st – Ringing in the New Year with the Binghamton Senators
The IceCaps were on a roll, enjoying a season-high 10-game point streak until they met the Senators on December 5th, on the last stop of their six-game road trip. It was a promising start as Mark MacMillian scored the IceCaps’ only goal just four minutes into the game, but the team failed to gain momentum. Dustin Tokarski managed to make 26 saves but the scoring just wasn’t there and the IceCaps fell 4-1.
January 2nd – First battle of the new year begins with the Utica Comets
On December 4th, the IceCaps had their first-ever matchup with the Comets in IceCaps franchise history. Even though the Comets doubled the IceCaps shots on goal with 31-15, they pushed it to another overtime and beat the Comets 2-1.
Angelo Miceli scored first for the the IceCaps, recording his first professional goal. Assisted by Luke Pither, who was on a PTO, and Tim Bozon. Thanks to the IceCaps special team of penalty killers, they stayed in the game during the Comets five power-play opportunities. One of which was during overtime when Bud Holloway scored the winning goal, with Mark Barberio picking up the assist. Pasquale was brilliant in net, earning himself first star and denying 30 of 31 shots.
The IceCaps will get another small break after this trip before kicking off their six-game home stand on January 8th.
