BILOXI, MS – Anything can happen in the playoffs, especially in the SPHL where things can happen in the blink of an eye. Just ask the defending champion Mississippi Surge.
Saturday night at the Mississippi Coast Coliseum, the Surge’s defense of the President’s Cup came to a crashing halt as the Pensacola Ice Flyers, led by goalie Steve Christie’s 28-save performance, shutout the Surge 2-0 to sweep the best-of -three series. The Ice Flyers now await the winner of Sunday’s Knoxville – Mississippi RiverKings game three to find who they will play in the semifinals.
Faced with a win-or-go-home situation, the Surge needed a fast start to get themselves and their home crowd into the game. Unfortunately for them, the Ice Flyers knew that a win would move them along in the playoffs and eliminate a hated rival. Pensacola put plenty of pressure on Surge goalie Kiefer Smiley but the rookie netminder was equal to the task. Christie wasn’t as busy but pitched a shutout of his own as the period ended with a scoreless tie.
Mississippi came out flying in the second period, pushing the tempo and five shots on Christie in the first four minutes. The game took a fatal turn for the Surge at the 5:16 mark when Adam Stuart was called for a five-minute major for clipping, giving Pensacola an extended power play as well as ending Stuart’s night early. Just over three minutes into the mad advantage, Chris Wilson fed a pass to Steve Bergin who fired a shot past Smiley to put the Ice Flyers in front. Then two seconds after the major penalty expired, Wilson set up Andrew Harrison for a score that doubled the lead. Thanks to a couple of Ice Flyer penalties, the Surge were able to crank up some offense in the final minutes of the stanza but Christie stayed strong, thwarting every shot to send Pensacola to the second intermission up by two.
Staring at the end of the season in front of them, the Surge jumped out in the third period, pushing hard to get on the scoreboard and jumpstart the crowd. Christie however had other ideas, meeting each challenging shot with an equally good save. Even an Ice Flyers penalty and subsequent Mississippi power play could not deter Pensacola from its goal of winning the game and sending the Surge to summer vacation well before they wanted to go.
Game Notes: Final shots for the game were 28-25 in favor of Mississippi…Pensacola went 1-for-4 on the power play while Mississippi went 0-for-3…With the Surge eliminated, Knoxville is still the only SPHL team to win consecutive President’s Cup titles.
Comment@prohockeynews.com
You must be logged in to post a comment.