KNOXVILLE, TN – After a pair of grueling five-game series and one day off, most fans might be able to forgive the Knoxville Ice Bears and the Fayetteville FireAntz if game one of the SPHL finals was less than a work of art. It is at times like these that coaches and fans find out who the leaders are and Knoxville has many.
Paced by the three goal and one assist performance of Tim Vitek and solid goaltending from Kirk Irving, Knoxville drew first blood with a 5-2 victory over Fayetteville at the Knoxville Civic Coliseum. Game two of the best-of-seven series is set for Saturday night in Knoxville
âThis is what we worked for for virtually 12 months really – to get ready hopefully to get back into the finals. Every guy in this room knew the purpose,â Knoxville coach Scott Hillman said. âWe certainly do not feel we had our best game. We know weâve got to be better tomorrow if we want to have both home wins.â
If any of the 2,417 in attendance werenât in their seats by the two minute mark of the first period, they missed the first key point of the game. Just 1:05 in, Fayettevilleâs Emery Olauson was called for slashing, setting up the Knoxville power play which was coming off a rather pedestrian series against Huntsville. It didnât take long for the Ice Bears as 50 seconds after the call, Vitek got the puck to Kevin Harris who in turn got it to super scorer Kevin Swider who beat âAntz goalie Guy St. Vincent to put Knoxville ahead to stay.
Late in the stanza, Harris and Shaun Norrie combined to set up Bobby Joe Pelkey for his fourth goal of the playoffs. The goal came after some discussion between referees Brent Columbe and John-Michael McNulty as the puck deflected off of Pelkeyâs skate into the net. They allowed the goal, giving the Ice Bears a 2-0 lead that they took into the intermission.
âThey went through the same thing,â Fayetteville coach Tommy Stewart said when asked if the previous series and one travel day had any affect of his teamâs performance. âIt was a good game. They capitalized on their chances and we really didnât. We kind of dug ourselves a hole and it was tough to get out of it.â
Knowing that they had let a two-goal lead get away in the semifinals, the Ice Bears set out to not let it happen again. At the 7:14 mark of the second period, the big line of Vitek, Swider and Mike Carter cranked it up again in the Fayetteville zone. This time it was Vitek who did the deed, putting the puck in the net after a shot by Carter rebounded off the glass right to him to make it 3-0. Less than two minutes later, while on a power play, Vitek tallied his second of the night off, this one coming off of a Harris shot that hit the boards and caromed back out to bulge the margin to 4-0. Aided by their first man advantage of the contest, the FireAntz picked up the pressure but couldnât dent Irving. It left Fayetteville with the daunting task of trying to erase a four-goal deficit in the final twenty minutes.
After killing off the remaining 53 seconds of a Knoxville power play from the second, the âAntz were hit with another call at the 2:40 mark of the third. This time, Fayetteville was able to utilize its team speed and made it pay off when Bob Rapoza set up Rob Sich for a short-handed goal at 4:36 to break up Irvingâs shut out bid. They drew to within 4-2 at 13:47 of the period, cashing in on their second man advantage of the game when Chris Leveille got the puck to defenseman Lawne Snyder who fed it to Matt Moreland who beat Irving. With just over two minutes left in regulation, Stewart pulled St. Vincent and Knoxville made him pay for the move as Swider picked up his second assist of the game on Vitekâs hat trick goal into the empty net at 17:51.
For Stewart, even though his team lost, there were positive to take away from the game, most notably the fact that they can still achieve the goal of a split on the road.
âWe won the third period. That was our goal. We out-shot them in the second and third,â he said. âOur goal was to split. Theyâre a good team but itâs a four out of seven. Its long, long from over and we move on to the next game.â
As for Hillman, he expects that both squads will be much improved in game two.
âThe game wasnât quite at the level that either team expected,â he said. âWe expect them to be better and weâve got to be that much better to match their effort. I believe with one night with a little bit of jitters for both teams, both teams play better hockey tomorrow.â
Game notesâŠThe team that has won game one of the finals in each of the SPHLâs previous seasons has gone on to win the championshipâŠIrving, last yearâs playoff MVP, stopped 39 of the 41 shots he faced while down at the other end, St. Vincent made 28 saves on 32 shotsâŠHillman said that the Ice Bears used the day off to work on their power play. It seemed to help as they went 2-for-5 with the man advantage. Fayetteville continued its fine special teams play, going 1-for-2 on the power play and picking up a short-handed tally by SichâŠFayettevilleâs second line of Dan Buccella, Emery Olauson and Brett Needham was kept off the score sheetâŠFollowing the use of four man officiating crews during a limited number of regular season games, the SPHL will staff every game of the finals with two referees and two linesmen.
Contact the author at don.money@prohockeynews.com
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