Special Teams Disasters and Soft Starts: Everblades Suffocate Icemen 4-1

By: J.J. Pavlick | Fairfield, CT | November 7, 2026 |

Jacksonville, FL- If you want to know how to lose a hockey game in the first twenty minutes, look no further than Saturday night at VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena. The Jacksonville Icemen walked into their own building riding a four-game point streak, only to hand the keys to the Florida Everblades early, getting thoroughly out-executed in a 4-1 loss in front of a packed house of over 10,000 fans.

This wasn’t a game where Jacksonville got unlucky; it was a game where they got outworked where it matters most: special teams and the dirty areas in front of the net.

The First Period: A Masterclass in Special Teams Disasters

You get multiple (special teams) power-play chances early in a divisional matchup; you have to bury them. Period. Jacksonville came out flat with the man advantage, overpassing the puck on the perimeter instead of driving the net and making Cam Johnson work.

When you let a dangerous team like Florida hang around after giving them free passes, it always comes back to bite you. At 7:59, Sean Allen and AJ Schleppe dropped the gloves in a heavyweight tilt that should have sparked the home bench. Instead, it was the Everblades who woke up.

Just two minutes after the fight, Mark Senden opened the scoring by exploiting a defensive breakdown, finishing a sequence from Jesse Lansdell and Maleek McGowan.

Then came the real backbreaker. Bennett MacArthur took a lazy tripping penalty at 14:12. It took Florida exactly 20 seconds to show Jacksonville how a real power play operates. Senden struck again, finding space in the slot to redirect a feed past Cameron Rowe. Two-zero, ice tilted, and the Icemen spent the rest of the period chasing the game.

Second Period: McMaster’s Spark Gets Snuffed

Give Adam McMaster credit—he showed the only real flash of desperation the Icemen had all night. At 6:33 of the second, Tanner Kelly made a beautiful, high-IQ touch pass from the wall to McMaster, who didn’t hesitate, snapping it past Johnson to cut the lead to 2-1.

That is how you score on a modern penalty kill—quick puck movement, one-touch passing, and zero hesitation.

For a minute, the building had life. Rowe locked things down on his end, stopping all 11 shots he saw in the second frame to keep Jacksonville within striking distance. But one line can’t carry the offensive load when you’re trying to mount a comeback against a structurally sound hockey team.

The Third Period: The Anatomy of a Squeeze

Any veteran coach will tell you the most dangerous lead in hockey is one goal in the third period. The next goal dictates the entire psychological flow of the game. Florida knew it, and Jacksonville played like they were waiting for something to happen.

Just four minutes into the final frame, Jesse Lansdell broke Jacksonville’s back. He found the net at 4:16, completely deflating the bench and restoring the two-goal cushion. Once again, Senden was right in the middle of it, picking up his third point of the night with the primary assist.

Tiernan Shoudy tried to spark a late-game response by fighting Tyler Schleppe right after the goal, but by then, the physical push felt like an afterthought. Florida locked down the neutral zone, clogged the lanes, and forced Jacksonville into desperate, low-percentage plays.

With Rowe pulled for the extra skater, a literal broken stick on a point shot summed up the Icemen’s entire night—disorganized and snakebitten. Devon Paliani walked the puck into the empty net at 18:43 to seal the 4-1 funeral.

Pro Analysis: The 1-for-7 Nightmare

You cannot win in this league going 1-for-7 on the power play. It’s death by a thousand cuts; Jacksonville’s man-advantage looked completely predictable. There was no net-front presence to screen Johnson, no defenseman willing to blast a puck from the blue line to create dirty rebounds, and the zone entries were entirely too soft.

Florida’s penalty kill aggressively pressured the half-wall because they knew Jacksonville wasn’t a threat to drive the seam. Allowing Florida to go 6-for-7 on the penalty kill and 1-for-4 on the man advantage, showing killer instinct the moment MacArthur gave them an opening. Is how teams with chemistry take big games early in the season.

Divisional games in November are about setting a standard for the winter grind. Jacksonville let Florida dictate the pace, physical tone, and special teams execution on their own home ice.