Surge give SPHL foes a huge jolt

BILOXI, Miss. – Expansion teams in pro sports are usually never given much thought because so many things are stacked against them. Players not knowing how each other work. Players not knowing what the coach wants and visa versa. Injuries. Off ice issues with getting the operation going in the right direction. Any or all of them can spell disaster for a first year club. The Mississippi Surge of the Southern Professional Hockey League could have been just one of many new teams that fizzled out before the season was a month old. Instead, they have met the challenges and persevered in a fashion befitting a squad that has been around the block a few times, sitting atop the standings with a little over a week remaining before the playoffs. “Going into the season, if I think back to the summer meetings when we’re all sitting there picking out the playoff format and how that was going to go, I said good lord I just want to make the playoffs,” Surge coach and general manager Steffon Walby said. “The biggest thing, and I write it down every single day at practice, is if we’re not getting better today that means six other teams are. That’s one of the things that we pride ourselves on – taking a step forward every singe day when we come to the office so to speak.” Like his counterparts Todd Gordon in Pensacola and Ron Handy in Louisiana, Walby started the season with plenty of ECHL experience under his belt from his days at the helm of the Mississippi Sea Wolves. Still, he was a bit apprehensive coming into a new league at a different level of play than what he was used to. Early on, the ride was a bit of a roller coaster. The Surge won their first two then went on a five game losing skid followed by a three game winning streak. “The first month or so of the season, I expected (that with) some of my older guys / guys statistically that have scored in the past that I thought we would have gotten off to a better start,” Walby said. The five game downturn coincided with a quirk in the schedule. For the first couple of weeks, the Surge played just Pensacola and Louisiana, former ECHL rivals along Interstate 10 who had joined the SPHL along with Mississippi. At the time of the skid, the Surge were just getting acquainted with the “original four” (Fayetteville, Huntsville, Knoxville and Columbus) in an extended road trip that gave Walby a good idea of what adjustments he needed to make in order to be competitive. “Starting on November 11th, we took our first trip out of our division. We played Knoxville and Fayetteville twice. That capped off the five-game losing streak and I just addressed it very sternly. We probably had the toughest practice of the year and I said I’m just not going to do it this year boys. If you’re not going to commit, then I’ll find somebody who is going to but we will never lose five in a row again and I’ll be surprised if we lose three in a row.” At that point, Walby noticed a change in attitude from several key players in the locker room. They began to realize that they needed to commit to Walby’s systems if they were going to be successful. “Without even knowing it, the group of guys came together and said enough’s enough. The leadership from (Matt) Zultek, (Steve) Weidlich on the

back end all the way down to the younger kids like Andy Boudreau and Tom Boudreau and guys like that saying we’re going to lug the mail because he (Walby) is committed to teaching us and he’s showing it by not bringing in a revolving door of players,” Walby said. The change in attitude coincided with Walby bringing in goalie Bill Zaniboni to work alongside Ryan Senft. The two goalies made each other, and consequently the team, better. “When we acquired Bill Zaniboni, we started to rotate the one-two (goalies). Then all of a sudden, we went through a tough stretch where we played with 13 guys because of injuries. At that point you could start to see the conditioning, the guys reacting instead of thinking and before you know it our three or four game win streak then went to six games, we’d lose one or two then we’d go on a 14-game unbeaten streak.” The combination of events turned out to be just what the doctor ordered. The Surge shut out Columbus 1-0 and then beat Huntsville, which at the time had not lost a game, twice within a few days. “All of a sudden the guys started to believe in themselves and I knew that if I could push themthrough what they’d ever been pushed through before that they would respond,” Walby said. “Like I said, just the overall tightness and camaraderie in the room is really what fuels the train here.” The quickness with which the Surge players took to each other came as a bit of a surprise to Walby, who found that he was as much a student of the SPHL and single-A hockey as he was a teacher for his players. “I had always heard that the difference between the ECHL and the AHL to this level was not only the obvious skill but the other thing which is that generally the guys play for the love of the game and they play it for each other. I had to retrain myself mentally because these guys were teaching me how to be accountable every day coming to the rink,” he said. “When you’ve got guys sitting in a group while you’re discussing systems and you’re discussing coaching techniques and they’re looking through you thirsting for knowledge, you’ve got to be on your toes. You can’t be waiting for them to catch you off guard. You’ve got to constantly try to catch them off guard. They’ve taught me to be more accountable as a coach and in return they come to work every single day and they know their accountability level has to be as high as mine if not exceeding mine because I’m going to make sure that they show up and play.” A huge part of Mississippi’s success has been their ability to stay disciplined. The Surge have faced the fewest short-handed situations in the league (277) and killed those at a league-leading 84.84 percent clip. Walby said that one of his goals for the Surge was to play under control and force opposing teams to make those mistakes. “For the last couple of years, I’ve lived with an undisciplined team. We were on the penalty kill so much that we couldn’t survive. This year it was one of my things that I wasn’t going to be happy with stupid penalties but even more so, the conditioning of our hockey club, the speed of our hockey club and just the overall frustration from other teams,” he said. “Those three things have combined to almost a hundred more power plays than other teams we’re facing. We’ve been accused of diving. We’ve been accused of everything but when it really comes down to it, those three things that I spoke of are probably the key reasons.” In Walby’s view, the success of the penalty killing has been the result of the efforts of defensemen Glen Cacaro and Steve Weidlich as well as goalies Zaniboni and Ryan Senft, who was just recently released, who the coach said They have had 406 power play opportunities, 97 more than the next closest team (Knoxville with 309). Naturally, getting all those man advantage chances is one thing but they mean nothing if you don’t make the other team pay by scoring. The Surge have scored a league high 94 power play goals (Fayetteville is second with 68). A lot of the power play success falls on the shoulders of veteran forward Matt Zultek. A newcomer to the SPHL but certainly not new to minor league hockey, Zultek has made quite a name for himself. The Mississauga, Ontarionative has already set himself a career high in points with 66 on 45 goals and 21 assists in 50 games. He broke the SPHL record for most power play goals in a season a month ago and has been adding to his own record ever since, totaling 30 with a couple more games to go. The 45 total goals puts him in elite company as well and another five more will put him into the rarified air of 50 goals. “He (Zultek) had his early success because they didn’t know how to handle the big man. He’s a good sized presence out on the ice. He can get his stick pretty much on anything. He’s got very good hand-eye coordination,” Walby said. “When he’s not open, the two other guys that are on the power play with him, they’ll find each other. We’ve just got a very good group as far as when Zultek is not open, somebody else is going to be open and they’re able to find them.” When Zultek is getting the opposition’s undivided attention, Walby has a stable of scorers and playmakers who have pitched in quite nicely. Former SPHL Rookie of the Year Michael Richard (23-47-70), Tim Velemirovich (28-32-60) and Matthew Larke (21-38-59) have all contributed greatly to the very potent Surge offense. According to Walby, all three came in with a winning attitude and work ethic that has translated into big numbers. “They want to get better. They challenge each other. They’re veryvocal at practice. They’re frustrated when they don’t have a great shift,” Walby said. “When they do have a good shift and they score, they come back very humbled because they know it was a group effort and not just a solo effort.” Even though the Surge are within two points of locking up the number one seed going into the post season, Walby said that he won’t feel comfortable until they clinch the title. As for the playoffs, he admitted to being just a bit apprehensive because carrying the top seed brings with it an immense amount of pressure but that the long term goal of a championship is now within sight. “I’m nervous. I won’t lie to you. If we’re fortunate enough to wrap up that first spot, then that sixth spot has the chance to make their whole season right by winning three games,” he said. “The bigger picture is to go into the playoffs with good habits, good attitude and still working the ultimate goal.” Contact the author at don.money@prohockeynews.com