12/27/22 Game Notes: Canine Companions Night
The Christmas weekend started with some holiday magic as the Ice Flyers ran over the Birmingham Bulls, 7-3, like a reindeer over grandma. Pensacola saw a scoring explosion, starting with Weiland Parrish’s 8th goal of the season in the first 4:0 0 minutes of play. Captain Garrett Milan would notch another in the 1st to extend his goal streak to 4 games
(9th goal this season). Malik Johnson joined in on the holiday fun, picking up his 7th goal of the season. Birmingham, without their star winger Michael Gillespie, rallied to bring the game within 1, but the 3rd period brought another avalanche of goals from the Ice Flyers. Branden Makara resumed his goal scoring, grabbing his 2nd goal of the year. Joey Sofa and Cory Dennis capped the evening with a goal each to settle the Bulls down for a long winter’s nap. The final was 7-3 Ice Flyers, with the Bulls returning to Pensacola on Friday, December 30th for their fourth and final showdown this month (PEN 2-1-0).
The Ice Flyers welcome the struggling Macon Mayhem to the Hangar tonight. The Mayhem have had a rough journey so far this season, as they sit a full 22 points behind the 1st -place Peoria Rive rm en (3 0 pts). But don’t sleep on Macon. The Mayhem have brought their best when playing the Ice Flyers over their four meetings, losing by 1 goal in three of the four contests (twice in overtime). This is a golden opportunity for Pensacola to finally move past their trend of .500 hockey. Captain Garrett Milan has ignited a scoring frenzy, but the Ice flyers will have to continue to play good defense and smart hockey to start pushing up the standings.
Tonight it’s Canine Companions Night! Canine Companions provides service dogs to adults, children, and veterans with disabilities and facility dogs to professionals working in healthcare, criminal justice, and educational settings. The Ice flyer’s own service dog in training, #75 Ranger, will be greeting guests at the game. For more information on Canine Companions visit Canine.org or lceflyers.com
