AUGUSTA, GA – Over the last nine days, the Southern Professional Hockey League went through the announcement of its regular season awards. As the various all-league teams and individual kudos came out, it was apparent that the Augusta RiverHawks had made a huge impression on the coaches and media around the circuit.
Friday night, the RiverHawks began their pursuit of the 2011 President’s Cup championship with an impressive 5-2 victory over the Pensacola Ice Flyers in game one of the best-of-three first round series at the James Brown Arena.
Augusta goalie Jon Olthuis made 38 saves in the RiverHawks%27 game one victory (PHN photo by Stephanie Simpers)
Things didn’t start off the way Augusta head coach and SPHL Coach of the Year Brad Ralph probably wanted. Just 13 seconds into the game, Jim Gehring took an elbowing penalty. It didn’t seem to phase the RiverHawks any as Branden Kosolofsky blocked a shot on the penalty kill, raced up ice and eventually set up Drew Baker for a short-handed score at the 1:09 mark to put Augusta ahead.
The teams went back and forth for the next six minutes before Augusta struck again. This time, Joe Tolles got the puck back to the point where defenseman Keith Wynn was waiting. Wynn teed up a shot that found its way past Ice Flyers’ goalie Ryan Scott to double the RiverHawks lead to 2-0.
Pensacola had needed to play a near-perfect game to beat Augusta but things were not going the Ice Flyers’ way. They needed a quick response to Wynn’s tally and got it just ten seconds later. Kevin Kozlowski got his stick on the puck in the RiverHawks’ zone and as he did, teammate and SPHL Rookie of the Year Chris Wilson cut for the slot. Wilson took the pass from Kozlowski and whipped a quick wrister past Olthuis, slicing the deficit to one goal.
Wilson’s goal slowed down Augusta’s attack, but not for long. Just over two minutes later, the RiverHawks took advantage of a power play opportunity to bump the lead up again. Neil Graham and Egor Mironov combined to set up Lucas LaBelle for his first playoff goal at the 11:40 mark to make it 3-1. That would be the last goal of the stanza as Olthuis and Scott stopped everything else fired their way.
As the second period started, the Ice Flyers put themselves in an immediate hole when Brett Parker was called for cross-checking 16 seconds in. Augusta made them pay when LaBelle returned the favor by setting up Mironov for a power play score at the 2:04 point.
Once again, the Ice Flyers found themselves in danger of having the game get away from them. It wasn’t as quick as the first time but 22 seconds later Tyler Barr set up Kozlowski for a shot that slipped through Olthuis’ five-hole.
Scott kept Pensacola in the game during the middle part of the period as the RiverHawks went for the kill. They peppered the Ice Flyers’ net minder with four shot in less than a minute but Scott was up to the challenge. Olthuis was equally as tough, especially when Pensacola’s Tyler Soehner had back-to-back chances in the closing minutes. When the buzzer sounded, the teams went to the intermission with Augusta in front 4-2.
Whatever Ice Flyers’ head coach Todd Gordon said to his troops in the locker room must have been something because his team came out flying at the start of the third period. Pensacola played with a sense of urgency and controlled stretches of play in the RiverHawks’ zone. Over the first 9:14 of the stanza, the Ice Flyers out shot Augusta 8-4 but Olthuis had a brick wall up, stopping everything that came his way. In one sequence, he stoned Tanner Shultz and Matt Whitehead in a span of five seconds to keep Augusta up by two.
Pensacola never gave up, continuing to press for the goals that would tie the game and possibly extend it to overtime. Dan Ehrman, Shultz and Kyle Dorowicz all had chances within 14 seconds of each other but once again Olthuis, who had been named to the All-Rookie and All-SPHL second teams, came up big. RiverHawks’ captain Matt Auffrey, who was named league Most Valuable Player earlier on Friday, dashed Pensacola’s hopes for a comeback when he scored into an empty net with 26 seconds left to complete the scoring.
Game Notes: Pensacola ended up out-shooting Augusta 40-29 for the game including a 15-6 advantage in the final period…Scott, who stopped 24 of the 28 shots he faced, started the day with some notoriety. Earlier in the season, he made a stop in a game against Mississippi but the puck got lost in his pads. The clip of the players and game officials searching for the puck landed as the number two video on ESPN’s “Not Top Ten” list for the week…Pensacola’s power play that scored ten goals against the RiverHawks in the regular season went 0-for-6 in game one. Augusta went 2-for-4 with the man advantage…Announced attendance for the game was 2,250…Saturday’s game two will drop the puck at 7:05 p.m. central time. If a game three is necessary, it will be played Sunday night back in Augusta.
Contact the author at don.money@prohockeynews.com
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