Havoc stage third period comeback

BILOXI, Miss. – Self belief can be one of the biggest intangibles in sports. It can turn the biggest underdog into a champion or simply give a good team the push it needs to become a great one.
Mike MacDonald and Justin Rohr scored 56 seconds apart midway through the third period to push the Huntsville Havoc to a stunning come-from-behind 3-2 victory over the Mississippi Surge in Game 2 of the SPHL finals Thursday

night at the Mississippi Coast Coliseum. The victory gives the Havoc a commanding 2-0 lead in the best-of-five series with a chance to win the President’s Cup on home ice at the Von Braun Center in Huntsville Saturday night.
“It was a real character win for us. Obviously we were down again in the game early but we felt we were playing well enough to win,” Huntsville coach Randy Murphy said. “We stayed the course. We had a few bad calls go against us and a few unlucky bounces but we stayed with it. The guys showed a lot of character and pulled it out.”
The evening got off to an interesting start before the opening puck was even dropped. During the pre-game warm-ups, members of both teams were allegedly sending pucks in the direction of the opposition. After a warning from referees Curtis Marouelli and Geoffrey Miller, the bickering continued, forcing the officials to take a stand. They singled out Huntsville’s Bill McCreary and Mississippi’s Daryl Moor, giving each a ten-minute misconduct to start play.
The Havoc wanted to set the tone for the game and had the first chance with an early power play. Mississippi goalie Bill Zaniboni was sharp, making three saves on point blasts from Havoc defenseman Vladimir Hartinger. Huntsville net minder Dan McWhinney got plenty of work in as well, holding the fort through a couple of Mississippi man advantage situations.
The Surge began to assert themselves in the latter half of the first period. It paid off at the 13:29 mark when Chris Greene and Matthew Larke set up Matt Zultek for his second goal of the post season and a 1-0 lead. The margin doubled in the final minute of the stanza with the Surge on their fourth power play of the period. With 14 seconds left, Greene assisted on Larke’s third playoff tally, giving the home team a 2-0 cushion going into the intermission.
Unlike Game 1’s first period, Mississippi coach Steffon Walby was pleased with his team’s effort in the opening period and for the majority of Game 2.
“We came out and set the tone. We had a lot of body checks, skated well and shot the puck,” Walby said. “They stuck to it (game plan). They believed in it. All in all the game plan was set. Had the guys had that mentality Wednesday night, we’d probably be tied 1-1. Instead, we‘re down 0-2 and going on the road”
Mississippi started the second period killing a penalty then had two more man advantage chances but failed to score. It left the door open for Huntsville to get back into the contest. They were able to do just that, taking advantage of a power play as Brett Liscomb scored his fifth post-season goal at the 9:24 mark. According to Walby, the goal should not have been allowed.
“That first goal (for Huntsville) was controversial. They had a guy laying on our goaltender. We had a guy (Steve Weidlich) who got hit in the face with the puck,” he said. “The refs are supposed to protect him and they did not. They kept the play going but hey, it happens.”
The score remained 2-1 into the third period as McWhinney and Zaniboni continued their personal battle between the pipes. The Surge felt they had control and according to Walby, went into something of a defensive shell while the Havoc tried to get the tying score.
Midway through the period, Huntsville got its answer in a big way. At the 9:04 mark, a costly turnover by Mississippi led to a clean break-in by Mike MacDonald. He got into shooting range and picked the top corner and hit it, tying the score and breathing life into the Havoc bench. Then, just seconds later, Huntsville caught the Surge on their heels, creating an odd-man rush. The sequence ended with Liscomb feeding Rohr in front of the Mississippi net for what would be the game winning goal at the 10:00 mark.
“Obviously it was the whole game in a nutshell in terms of the outcome,” Murphy said. “You don’t plan for that kind of stuff to happen. All we did was continue to play our game as well as we could. We had those chances – maybe not as blatant as we had late in the game – but we capitalized on a couple of unfortunate plays they had.”
On the other side of the ice, Walby lamented about the momentary loss in focus by his team.
“We made two mistakes. We took back real estate, we took back ice when we shouldn’t have twice,” he said. “One ended up in the back of the net. The other one resulted in a defenseman pinching up and that one ended up in the back of the net.”
Huntsville, riding the wave of the two goals, didn’t sit back in the final minutes, continuing to press. Although the pressure didn’t result in many shots, it did keep the Surge from getting opportunities to tie the game. Mississippi had just one recorded shot in the final ten minutes as it watched its home ice advantage completely crumble.
Walby said that some adjustments may be made between now and Game 3 but that they probably won’t be big ones.
“I’d be a fool to say that we weren’t going to make any adjustments but at the same time, any  adjustments you’re going to make will be minor. They’re not going to be major because you’re not going to abandon your entire system that got you to where you are,” he said. “We’re going to make some adjustments. The biggest thing is to keep our composure but at the same time making sure we don’t have a four, five or six minute lapse.”
For Murphy, he now has the task of keeping his team focused on getting what may be the single hardest win in pro sports – the series-clinching victory.
“It’s the hardest game to win in a series. Our mindset is going to be that nothing changes,” he said. “We don’t need to change anything other than playing with a lead would be nice.”
Game notes…After losing the first game of the playoffs, Huntsville has now won six straight games…The game was remarkably even as each team had 26 shots on net…Mississippi’s power play continued to struggle as opposed to its success in the regular season. The Surge went 1-for-9 in Game 2 for a two game count of 1-for-16. Huntsville’s man advantage went 1-for-5 Thursday night and now is 3-for-10 in the finals…Attendance at the MCC was better for Game 2 as 2,025 watched the contest…If a Game 4 is needed, it is scheduled for next Tuesday in Huntsville.
Contact the author at don.money@prohockeynews.com