Schembri, Hartinger give Havoc early jump

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. – Late season roster changes can be a shot in the arm or a blow to locker room chemistry. Wednesday night, two end of the year acquisitions made the difference for the Huntsville Havoc. Forward Andrew Schembri scored twice and defenseman Vladimir Hartinger added another to lead the Havoc to a decisive 5-1 victory over the Knoxville Ice Bears i

n the opening game of the second round of the SPHL playoffs at the Von Braun Center in Huntsville. The Havoc will travel to Knoxville on Friday to try to close out the best-of-three series and move on to the President‘s Cup championship series. “Vlady is a real offensive talent with great puck moving ability and Schembri has added a lot of spark for us in terms of offense,” Huntsville Head Coach Randy Murphy said. “They are great team guys, guys you can’t have enough of in the playoffs.” Hartinger opened the scoring early in the first. On the initial power play of the game, his drive from the point whistled past Knoxville goalie Andrew Gallant’s glove side just inside the far post, to give Huntsville the lead at 4:13. Less than a minute later, the first of Schembri’s two goals sent a strong message to the current President’s Cup champions that fast beats furious every time. Gallant got caught out of his net when he came out to play the puck. Schembri took advantage of the turnover to quickly make it a 2-goal game just 5:03 into the first. Gallant looked a little shaky at first and Knoxville’s lines appeared a bit confused, but soon the Ice Bears found their legs and took control of the last 12 minutes of the first to keep it to a 2-0 lead for Huntsville. After tallying 181shots on goal in the first series, Knoxville was held to only seven shots in the first period and 29 shots in the game. “They took it to us. We did not do what the game plan was and that was to get pucks behind them and take it to them physically,” Knoxville Head Coach Marc Rodgers said. “They did what we wanted to do to them, that’s why they got 14 shots and we only got seven.” Knoxville continued to look solid in the second, but was unable to take advantage of an 80-second five-on-three power play eight minutes into the period. The Ice Bears failed to score on eight power play chances, bringing their playoff totals to an abysmal 1-for-30. The only goal of the period came when Knoxville’s Kyle Bochek, upon exiting the penalty box, was called for slashing. Before he could go back into the box, Huntsville pulled goalie Dan McWhinney for the extra attacker which led to Schembri‘s second score of the game at 17:40. Mike MacDonald and former Ice Bear Mike Carter were credited with the assists on the tally that allowed Huntsville to enter the locker room at second intermission with a comfortable 3-0 lead. “We knew we needed to finish the game on a high note to get ready for the next one,” Rodgers said. “This is nothing new to us, nothing we’re not used to.” Huntsville hit the ice for the third ready to seal the deal and they got their chance in the form of the sport’s most exciting play – a penalty shot. On a short-handed breakaway from the blue line, Huntsville’s Ray Ortiz was taken down by Knoxville’s John Halverson, resulting in a free shot at the Knoxville net. Ortiz slipped the puck past Gallant, making it 4-0 at 3:46 of the final period. Less than 30 seconds later, MacDonald beat Gallant on his glove side for a short-handed goal to bring the score to 5-0. Knoxville’s Bochek denied Huntsville goalie McWhinney a shutout on a one-timer from Travis Martell and Frank Furdero 14:27 into the period, bringing the final score to 5-1 to account for the final score. Bochek may have had the lone Knoxville goal, but he also was charged with a game misconduct for spearing with less than two minutes left in the game. It is unclear if he will be available to play in Friday’s game, pending a review by the league. McWhinney faced 29 shots and turned away all but one, although much of the credit has to be given to the defense that made several big stops in front of the net minder. “We’re making sure we are sound in front of him [McWhinney] – blocking shots, clearing rebounds, letting him see the puck,” Murphy said. “McWhinney is taking up a lot of the net and making some really athletic saves. He’s getting the job done and that’s all we can ask for.” Knoxville heads back to the Civic Coliseum and familiar territory, both on the ice and in the standings. If Knoxville has any hope of lifting the President’s Cup for a third year in a row, they are going to have to play better, much better. To do that, it is back to the basics for Swider and the boys. “We don’t need to turn the puck over in the neutral zone and try to beat them one-on-one,” Rodgers said. “They know what they need to do. The systems are not new and there’s nothing they don’t know about this [Huntsville] team. We’ve just got to execute.” For Huntsville, it is just one game away from its inaugural visit to the championship playoff round and it is all about a repeat of Wednesday’s performance. “No different strategy – just trying to mimic the same game we played tonight. We know we can win in that rink, but they are a much different team at home,” Murphy said. “Hopefully, we can keep up with them on Friday night.” Game notes: Huntsville’s Nick Monroe left the game in the first period after a big hit with Knoxville’s Frank Furdero. He did not return to the game and his condition was unknown after the game…Knoxville’s number one line struggled to make the big plays. The Kevin Swider-Tim Vitek-Bobby Joe Pelkey line only managed seven shots on goal on the night…Huntsville’s power play was equal to Knoxville’s, going 1-for-8 on the night. The Havoc are now 5-for-30 this post season…Attendance for the Wednesday night game was 2,055. Kristina Shands is an intern for the Knoxville Ice Bears Contact the author at kristina.shands@prohockeynews.com