Preview: Florida battles Icemen, looks to extend road point streak

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The Florida Everblades (12-6-1-1, 26 pts.) wrap up a four-game road trip and start a three-game week with a Wednesday night matchup against the Jacksonville Icemen (6-9-3-0, 15 pts.) at Veterans Memorial Arena in Jacksonville.

VITALS:Game 21: Everblades at Jacksonville IcemenWhen: 7 p.m. ETWhere: Veterans Memorial ArenaWatch: ECHL TVListen: WJBX (101.5 FM, 104.3 FM, 770 AM)Social: Twitter | Instagram

Last time outFlorida scored first and held two separate leads in the third period, but the Utah Grizzlies scored with just 2:34 left in regulation to force overtime in an eventual 5-4 shootout win over the 'Blades on Saturday night in West Valley City, Utah. Brandon Saigeon had the game-tying goal for Utah and then scored the only goal of the shootout in the third round to give the Grizzlies the extra standings point. Logan Roe paced the 'Blades offense with two goals and three points to help Florida come away with four points in the three-game series, Florida's only Mountain Division road trip of the season. RECAP | BOX SCORE

Series At A GlanceWednesday is just the second meeting of the season between Florida and Jacksonville and the first matchup in Jacksonville. Although the Icemen won the first meeting of the season, 4-3, on Nov. 9 in Estero, Florida still has the commanding edge in the all-time series. The 'Blades hold a 22-4-2 record against Jacksonville since it joined the ECHL in the 2017-18 season. Florida has posted a 9-3-1 record at Veterans Memorial Arena and went 3-3-1 in Jacksonville last season.

Players to WatchLogan Roe (FLA) - Roe's three-point night on Saturday tied his career-high for a game, while his two-goal outing was his first career multi-goal game. Roe's only other three-point contest came in a 5-0 win over the Greenville Swamp Rabbits on Jan. 11, 2019, when he recorded a career-best three assists. With his two goals on Saturday, Roe eclipsed his entire goal output from last season in 48 fewer games. He is now just two goals shy of his career-high of seven goals from the 2017-18 campaign.

Chase Lang (JAX) –  The fourth-year pro leads Jacksonville in scoring with 14 points (8g-6a) and set his single-game season-high with three points (2g-1a) against Florida in the first meeting with the 'Blades this year on Nov. 9. Lang has trended toward scoring in bunches. The Nanaimo, British Columbia, native has recorded at least one point in eight games and four of those games have been multi-point outings. Lang has 44 career points (19g-25a) in 98 career ECHL games. 

That's A PlusOn the heels of his stellar offensive night on Saturday, Roe was named on Monday a co-recipient of the ECHL's AMI Graphics Plus Performer of the Month award. The fifth-year 'Blades defenseman logged a plus-minus rating of +14 in November and now leads the league with a +17 rating this season. That's hardly new territory for the Fort Myers, Florida, native. He finished as the ECHL's Plus Performer of the Year in the 2017-18 season with a +43 rating and was fourth overall last season with a +39 rating.

Picking Up SteamFlorida's power play has ratcheted up the pace over its last two games. Before scoring on their third power play of the night against Utah on Friday, the 'Blades had gone just 1-for-39 on the man advantage over their previous 10 games dating back to Nov. 6. However, Florida has now converted on two of its last seven chances and has power-play strikes in consecutive games for the first time since the second and third games of the season. What makes that two-game stretch more impressive is that Utah ranked third in the ECHL with a 93.8% penalty kill conversion rate in home games ahead of Friday's game.

Road WarriorsBy forcing overtime or a shootout in two games against Utah last week, the 'Blades extended their road point streak to seven games. That streak is tied for the second-longest road point streak of the season in the ECHL. Only South Carolina's nine-game road point streak is longer. Florida's streak ties its longest from last season, which spanned a similar time frame. The 'Blades posted at least one point in seven straight road games from Nov. 17, 2018 - Dec. 14, 2018. 

Next UpFlorida will get another crack at the South Division's top team this weekend when it hosts the South Carolina Stingrays in a two-game set at Hertz Arena on Friday and Saturday.

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