Turning point: Rasmus Kumpulainen scored the first of five unanswered goals at 4:49 of the second period and the last-place Iowa Heartlanders stormed past the Jacksonville Icemen 5-1 in ECHL hockey on Jan. 24 at VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena.
Three stars: 1. Anthony Firriolo, Iowa (one goals, two assists). 2. William Rousseau, Iowa (33 saves). 3. Kumpulainen, Iowa (one goal, two assists).
Penalty box: The Icemen not only failed to exploit a five-minute power play after Iowa’s Stevie Leskovar received a match penalty for slew-footing, but gave up a short-handed go-ahead goal during the sequence to the Heartlanders’ Firriolo.
Around the rink: Nathan Dunkley scored only 13 seconds in for an instant lead for the Icemen (16-18-2-0), playing their second game in Lizard Kings Weekend. … Jacksonville goalie Cameron Rowe saved 20 shots. … Iowa (11-24-2-0), which entered last in the 30-team ECHL, pulled away in the third period on goals by Jonny Sorenson, Liam Coughlin and Matthew Sop. … Leskovar’s match penalty could lead to additional discipline from the ECHL office. … The Icemen had opened the weekend with a 4-2 win over the Savannah Ghost Pirates, including goals for Christopher Brown, Craig Martin, Matteo Costantini and Bennett MacArthur.
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