For immediate release

For more information, contact: Joel Silverberg, Director of Broadcasting (865) 525-7825,  joel@knoxvilleicebears.com.

KNOXVILLE, TN — Frankie Ireland scored his second overtime winner in the past seven days and the Knoxville Ice Bears defeated the Fayetteville Marksmen 3-2 at the Knoxville Civic Coliseum Friday night.

Ireland has now scored in three straight games. Ryan Kuzmich and Davide Gaeta also scored for Knoxville, winners of three straight. Spencer Bellina had two assists and Stephen Mundinger made 49 saves.

Fayetteville held the puck in the neutral zone and attempted to dump it into the Knoxville zone, but the puck sat by the blue line and Gaeta collected it and found Ireland all alone in the neutral zone up the left wing with Fayetteville getting caught in a line change. Ireland raced through the left circle on a breakaway, swept across the front of the crease and lifted a backhand over Jacob Mucitelli.

Mundinger helped keep the game scoreless through the first period for Knoxville by fighting off Evan Pringle’s short range attempt from the left side and holding onto Shane Murphy’s wrister from the bottom of the right circle. Later in the period, he blocked Ayodele Adeniye’s shot from the left circle and swallowed the ensuing rebound from in front of the crease by Ricky Boysen.

At the other end, Mucitelli withstood a heavy workload of chances by Knoxville. He stopped Ryan Kuzmich’s chance from in front, fought off a redirect by Jianing Guo, gloved Ranon Joseph’s blast from the point and kicked away several other chances with a series of pad saves.

Ryan Kuzmich finally broke the scoreless tie in the second period. Bellina blocked a Fayetteville shot and Kuzmich picked up the rebound, carried the puck through the neutral zone into the right circle and ripped a snap shot through Boysen’s legs and past Mucitelli’s blocker at 8:11.

Gaeta extended Knoxville’s lead four minutes later when he scored off his own rebound for his fourth goal of the year. Bellina lifted the puck out of the zone down into the Fayetteville end and Blake Tosto outpaced everyone to avoid an icing whistle and slipped the puck off the back wall to the net front. Gaeta fought through traffic for his first attempt and put back the second chance past Mucitelli to make it 2-0 at the intermission.

Mundinger steadied the Ice Bears in the Knoxville zone by stopping Christian Blomquist’s redirect in front of the crease, denying Pringle on a three-on-one from the left circle and covering Murphy’s loose puck chance during an Ice Bears penalty kill.

Blake Humphrey and Lincoln Moore scored in the third period to force overtime. Mucitelli made 48 saves.

Knoxville visits Birmingham Saturday afternoon. The Marksmen return home and will host Roanoke for a school day game Thursday morning.

ABOUT The Knoxville Ice Bears: The Knoxville Ice Bears organization began in 2002 and was an inaugural charter member of the Southern Professional Hockey League (SPHL) in 2004. As four-time SPHL Champions and five-time regular season champions, the Ice Bears are an experienced and established organization, offering the city and its visitors a balanced product of highlight-reel hockey, unique and exciting intermission activity and endless fan interaction, presenting the most affordable, family-friendly way to enjoy sports and entertainment. Season, Partial Season and Flex Tickets are now on sale. For more information, visit www.knoxvilleicebears.com or call (865) 525-7825.

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