Kinnunen, Snakes eliminate Havoc

COLUMBUS, GA – When the Columbus Cottonmouths took game one of their best- of-three series against the Huntsville Havoc, they came home with plenty of momentum. Columbus rolled with it, pulling off an exciting 5-4 victory Saturday night at the Columbus Civic Center.
Matt Kinnunen led the way with a goal and two assists and Ian Vigier stopped 29 of 33 shots as the Snakes swept the defending SPHL President’s Cup Champions two games to none. It was also the first post-season series victory for the Cottonmouths since they won the President’s Cup in 2005.
“It doesn’t seem like it was seven years ago, the two teams are pretty similar. The year we won it we had a lot of young guys,” Columbus player/assistant coach Orrin Hergott said. “That season we had a lot of young guys come in full of fire saying ‘What the heck, let’s turn it up’ kind of attitude and this season we have a group of guys with that same attitude.”
Huntsville took the ice with a sense of desperation, knowing that another loss and the Havoc’s defense of the President’s Cup title would be over. They came out swarming Vigier in the Cottonmouths’ net, logging seven of the first eight shots in the contest.
Daryl Moore opened the scoring midway through the first, deflecting a puck off the stick of

Jordan Braid past Havoc goalie Dan McWhinney. Huntsville continued to fire away at Vigier but failed to light the lamp, allowing Columbus to take a 1-0 lead into the intermission.
Huntsville answered early in the second thanks to the hustle of Chris Bratina. Bratina forced a turnover and fed Kyle Laughlin who beat Vigier to tie the score at the 3:36 mark. Kinnunen gave the Snakes the lead for good less than four minutes later on a hot shot from the right wing side. Then just past the midway point of the period, Tom Maldonado’s drive from the point through traffic eluded McWhinney for a power play goal at the 11:03 mark, pushing the Cottonmouths’ lead to 3-1.
Columbus seemed to put it out of reach when Brett Hammond scored a highlight goal worthy of SportsCenter. Hammond carried the puck into the zone, creating a two-on-one with teammate Sam Bowles. Havoc defenseman Omar Pacha left his skates to block the passing lane. Hammond held onto the puck, choosing to face McWhinney on his own. Hammond took McWhinney off his skates with a series of dekes and stuffed the puck home.
Teammate Hergott thought Hammond’s tally was a turning point.
“It was a pretty dirty goal and a huge goal for Hammond. It energized our guys,” Hergott said. “He’s been playing great down the stretch. I hope he has a few more of those left.”
Not wanting to end the season yet, Huntsville made it interesting in the final period. Bratina made it 4-2 at the 5:42 mark with the assists going to Ray Ortiz and Bill McCreary. Jordan Braid put the Snakes back up by three five minutes later with the Cottonmouths‘ second power play goal of the game.
The last four minutes were all Huntsville. Bratina pulled Huntsville within 5-3 with 3:40 left. Then as the clock ticked down to two minutes left, Havoc Coach Randy Murphy pulled McWhinney for an extra attacker. The plan worked when with just 1:33 left, Kevin Kessler made it a one goal game and giving the large group of Havoc faithful that made the trip to Columbus hope.
“Our team has a lot of character. We thought on the bench, we had two minutes left when we scored the fourth goal. We were believing we would pull it off,” Huntsville goalie Mark Sibbald said. “We had a lot of close calls, but Ian Vigier stood on his head.”
As if the situation wasn’t stressful enough, with just four seconds left, Mitch Wall was called for unsportsmanlike conduct, giving Huntsville a brief power play. It wasn’t enough as Bowles won the face-off and smothered the puck along the boards to secure the win.
After the game, Murphy credited the commitment of the Snakes as the deciding factor in the contest and the series.
“Thursday we won the special teams and Columbus won the game. Tonight they won the special teams and won the game. The end result was a total team effort,” Murphy said. “ All 18 of their guys bought in, we were sporadic to buying in. My hat’s off to Columbus. I thought they played two great games of hockey.”
Cottonmouths Coach Jerome Bechard felt that the win in game one was a huge boost for his squad.
“Game one was about everything. Both nights we played our system to a T,” Bechard said. “Game one was key to taking pressure off of us. We had our foot on the gas pedal the whole way.”
The Snakes will have to wait to find out who they will face in the second round as Pensacola forced a deciding game three with Augusta Sunday night. Bechard said he doesn’t have a preference as to which team the Cottonmouths face.
“It doesn’t really matter, we’ve matched up well against both of them,” Bechard said. “We haven’t played up to our potential against Augusta. We played well against them the last time up there (but) we lost in overtime. We’ll be ready whoever comes up against us.”
Game Notes: Columbus out shot Huntsville 39-32 in the game…Columbus’ line of Moore, Braid and Kinnunen combined for six points while the combination of Bowles, Hammond and Jesse Cole had three points…Huntsville’s Bratina had himself a three point night with two goals and an assist. He also finished the game with a plus-4 rating…Columbus’ penalty killing was perfect, killing all seven of the Havoc’s power plays. For the series, the Havoc were 2-for-11 with the man advantage…The Cottonmouths finished the series 3-for 9 on the power play after going 2-for-4 in game two.
Contact the author at lee.marion@prohockeynews.com