COLUMBUS, GA – When Fayetteville FireAntz coach Tommy Stewart climbed behind the bench for the start of the second period of Game 1 of the SPHL semifinals series against the Columbus Cottonmouths, he had to feel quite good with his team holding a 2-0 lead. By the time the second twenty minutes were done, he had to be wishing he and his team had stayed in the locker room.
The host Cottonmouths, backed by a six-goal blitz in the middle stanza and a hat trick by Orrin Hergott, left their visitors from North Carolina feeling queasy and on the short end of a 9-3 final in front of 1,623 delirious fans at the Columbus Civic Center. The final score established new league records for most goals by one team in a playoff game (9) as well as most combined goals by two teams in a post-season contest (12).
“We allowed no odd-man rushes in the first period. We were skating and winning the puck,” Stewart said. “For 27 minutes, we played a perfect road game but for the last 33 we didn’t.”
Early in the first period, the teams looked more like two fighters sizing each other up. Columbus netminder Ian Vigier was the first to face a tester as he turned aside a Rob Sich tip of a Matt Moreland pass. Down the other end, Guy St. Vincent was just as sharp early on.
The first blink came from Vigier. Moments after he appeared to take a shot off the facemask, Antz defenseman Bob Rapoza let go with a wrist shot that found the back of the net past an obviously distracted Vigier at the 12:54 mark. Less than two minutes later, after Cottonmouths defenseman Mat Ponto was called for a penalty, Emery Olauson and Dan Buccella combined to set up Brett Needham for a power play tally and a 2-0 lead that held up into the intermission.
The FireAntz, thinking they could put Columbus over the ropes, came out aggressively at the start of the second but Sich was stoned once again by Vigier on a laser shot from close range. Momentum began to swing toward the home team eight minutes into the period when following an ineffective power play, Tim Green scooped up a loose puck in the crease and stuffed it past St. Vincent, cutting the margin to 2-1.
The goal by Green seemed to awaken the Columbus offense and by the time the smoke had cleared, the Antz were dazed and shocked. The onslaught started when Josh Coyle picked off the puck and fed Green who in turn sent Sam Bowles in alone where he beat St. Vincent to tie the score at 2-2 at the 12:15 mark. 27 seconds later, Ryan Rutz pilfered the puck and fed Brad Patterson who went high over the Fayetteville goalie to put Columbus in front to stay. A mere 24 more seconds had elapsed when the Cottonmouths turned a Vigier save into a 3-on-2 break with Hergott netting his first of the night to make it 4-2. One minute and 18 seconds later, Snakes captain Craig Stahl leveled Fayetteville’s Brett McConnachie, took the puck and started another odd man break that ended with Rutz making three moves before beating St. Vincent, upping the lead to 5-2 and ending St. Vincent’s night. Chad Collins came in and was rudely greeted by Green and Ryan McCarthy setting up Roman Marakhovski for a blast from the high slot at 16:21 to complete the six pack.
All told, Columbus had scored the six goals in 8:24 of clock time with the final five coming in just 4:06 and the Bowles-Patterson-Hergott trio in only 51 seconds. It was a perfect storm of offense for the home team.
“When we were down 2-0, we didn’t change our game plan,” Columbus coach Jerome Bechard said. “Then everything went our way. In that second period, we couldn’t make a bad play.”
The last bit of offense for Fayetteville came less than a minute into the third period when on a power play, Dan Buccella won a draw to Olauson who beat Vigier cleanly to make it 6-3 and give the ‘Antz faithful a glimmer of hope. The hope faded quickly as a Ponto drive from the point was deflected to the top corner by Lorne Misita at 1:14 to push the lead to 7-3. Misita was the catalyst for Hergott’s second goal of the game when he lifted an opponent’s stick,=2 0took the puck and fed McCarthy who in turn passed it to Hergott who double faked and beat Collins through the five hole at 12:39. The speedy forward then completed just the sixth playoff hat trick in the history of the SPHL at 14:19 with assists going to McCarthy and Ponto.
With game two set for Saturday in Columbus and game three Sunday afternoon back in Fayetteville, Bechard fully expects to see a recharged FireAntz team this weekend. He also knows that his team has to put this win behind it just as quickly as he thinks Fayetteville will.
“Tonight’s game could have been a 2-1 game. They’ve (Fayetteville) been through it all and they’ve probably forgotten about it already,” he said. “We’ve got to prepare like they will, like we’re down 1-0.”
Game Notes…Vigier made 26 save in earning the victory while St. Vincent stopped 29 of the 34 shots he faced. Collins made eight saves on the 12 shots he saw after replacing St. Vincent…Stewart said that he “had to get St. Vincent out of the game to make sure he is rock solid for Saturday”…McCarthy had four assists and finished the night at plus-4 while his teammate Jason Slusher had no points and the same plus-4 rating…The other five SPHL players with playoff hat tricks: George Nistas (Fayetteville) and Jason Birmingham (Knoxville) in 2006, Mike Tuomi (Knoxville) and Galloway Carroll (Columbus) in 2007 and Frank Furdero (Jacksonville) in 2008.
Contact the author at don.money@prohockeynews.com
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