FAYETTEVILLE, NC ¾ Coaches will tell you that the quickest way to grow grey hairs and lose games is for your team to make unforced errors. Turnovers more often than not will become scores for the other team.
That was the case Saturday night in game four of the SPHL finals as two key giveaways by the Knoxville Ice Bears in their defensive zone were turned into goals as the Fayetteville FireAntz, paced by Rob Sich’s two goals, took advantage to take a 4-1 victory at the Crown Coliseum. With the win, Fayetteville tied the series at 2-2 heading into a very important game five Sunday afternoon in Fayetteville.
“Sometimes unfortunately there may be a little bit of jitters, nerves in playoff hockey when the games are on the line,” Knoxville coach Scott Hillman said. “We’ve got a lot of young players on the squad. We’ll just work to eliminate those mistakes in the next game to ensure victory.”
Game four’s first period started in a very similar fashion to game three. Both offenses were kept out of serious scoring range, firing long shots that both Knoxville’s Kirk Irving and Fayetteville’s Guy St. Vincent handled easily.
The FireAntz found some life during a three minute stretch when Rob Colangelo and Dan Buccella had good opportunities only to be denied by Irving. Not to be outdone, St. Vincent made his best stop of the period during a Knoxville power play when Bobby Joe Pelkey redirected a Kevin Harris shot that St. Vincent knocked away. Two late saves by Irving kept the game scoreless into the first intermission.
The game took a decidedly non-playoff turn in the second. The play started opening up more, a good indication of how both teams thought the first goal was. During an early Knoxville power play, Fayetteville’s Marc Norrington got loose and almost had himself a clean breakaway before Ice Bears’ defenseman Harris got back to deny a shot. Moments later, St. robbed game three hero Chris Rebernik who had a point blank chance from the slot.
Through the middle part of the stanza, Irving and St. Vincent played a game of “anything you can do I can do better” of epic proportions. They traded outstanding save after outstanding save, none better than a flying pad stop by Irving on a rebound drive by Colangelo.
The tide turned in Fayetteville’s favor starting with a power play opportunity at the 12:24 mark. It took the FireAntz just nine seconds for Craig Geerlinks to send the puck to Corey Hessler who put the puck on the stick of Sich. Sich’s blast from the circle beat Irving cleanly to make it 1-0. Seconds later, Fayetteville was called for a penalty but the ‘Antz took advantage as Emery Olauson intercepted an ill-advised Kevin Swider pass in the slot and whipped the puck over Irving and under the crossbar to give the home team a 2-0 margin at 13:40.
“Special teams have led us through the playoffs. It was no different tonight,” Stewart said. “The guys are resilient. They really showed their true colors tonight.”
The Ice Bears needed an answer before the end of the period and they got it. Mike Carter used his speed to win the puck along the boards. He then fed the puck to the slot where Swider grabbed it and beat St. Vincent top corner with 1:57 before the intermission. Though they dominated the remaining time, Knoxville trailed 2-1 after two.
Knoxville had a golden opportunity to tie the game early in the third on a power play. Although they moved the puck well, the Ice Bears could never get a good shot on St. Vincent. The penalty kill seemed to spark the FireAntz as they began to take the play away from Knoxville, putting more and more pressure on Irving and the Ice Bears’ defense.
The score remained 2-1 until the 13:15 mark when yet another Knoxville turnover became Fayetteville gold. This time it was Mike Ruberto who took advantage of the Knoxville defensive lapse to steal the puck. He fed Colangelo who fired on Irving. Irving made the initial save but the rebound came loose and Norrington was there to shove it home. Sich’s second of the game into an empty net at 19:54 sealed the victory and sent the majority of the 2,111 in attendance home happy.
The two teams will be back on the ice for game five at 5 P.M., just 19 hours after the conclusion of game four. Stewart doesn’t think either team will be tired going into maybe the biggest game of the year but he did give his squad one piece of advice.
“Since we tied it (series) up, it‘s even bigger tomorrow (Sunday). It would be nice going up one game going into their building,” he said. “I said (to his players) if it goes the distance, after Thursday you’ll have as much rest as you want all summer.”
Across the ice, Hillman noted that the next game is important, maybe more so for Fayetteville than his team.
“We have the safety net – which we don’t want to have to use – of two home games remaining. Getting the lead 3-2 with two possible games to clinch for either team is huge,” he said. “The pressure is a little more on them because they’re the home team and we’ve got our home ice to go back to if necessary.”
Game Notes…Through the first four games of the finals, Knoxville has yet to allow a goal by Fayetteville. The FireAntz have owned the second and third periods, outscoring the Ice Bears 11-6…Of Fayetteville’s 30 goals in the playoffs, 14 have come on the power play…St. Vincent made 39 saves for the win while Irving stopped 37 in a losing effort…Olauson’s short handed goal was Fayetteville’s third of the playoffs…The series is now guaranteed to go to a game six. It will be played Wednesday back in Knoxville.
Contact the author at don.money@prohockeynews.com Catch all the playoffs at Intotheboards.net
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