BILOXI, MS – After their stunning loss to the Knoxville Ice Bears Friday night, the Mississippi Surge were angry – very angry. Saturday night, they turned that anger into the perfect motivation.
Led by the two goal performances of Mark Versteeg-Lytwyn, Jason Beeman and Adam Bartholomy, the Surge put an 8-1 beat down on the Ice Bears in game two of their best-of-five playoff series at the Mississippi Coast Coliseum. The victory evened the series at one win apiece before the teams head to Knoxville for games three and four next weekend.
In the wake of the win on Friday, there were a few things Knoxville needed to do in
Mississippi%27s Adam Bartholomy had two goals and three assists in the Surge%27s game two victory (PHN photo by Stephanie Simpers)
On the other hand, Mississippi knew they needed to keep playing the way they did in the first two periods of game one by drawing penalties, shooting the puck and maintaining discipline.
Just as they had in game one, the Surge dominated the first period, out-shooting Knoxville 16-6. Mark Versteeg-Lytwyn converted on a Knoxville penalty at the 3:51 mark by taking advantage of an Ice Bears turnover and getting it past goalie Bryan Hince. Down the other end, Mississippi net minder Bill Zaniboni was having a rocking chair period, facing just three shots in the first 14 minutes of the stanza.
Late in the period, Knoxville once again found themselves in the penalty box when Dan Mercer was called for holding. With less than ten seconds left on the man advantage, Bartholomy found some open space after taking a pass from Rusty Masters and buried the puck in the net to make it a 2-0 game heading into the first intermission.
The second period was all Mississippi. A careless pass by Knoxville in front of their own crease allowed Rob Campbell to burn his former teammates and get one past Hince less than a minute into the second period to make it 3-0. After Bartholomy scored his second goal of the night on Hince at the 7:09 mark, newly acquired goalie Thomas Lee was called into action between the pipes.
Realizing that his team needed a spark, Knoxville’s Brett Valliquette dropped the gloves and went toe-to-toe with Mississippi’s Beeman but it failed to rally the troops. After yet another Knoxville penalty, Versteeg-Lytwyn scored his second power play goal of the game off a backdoor pass from Jeff Winchester at 16:15 to run the score to 5-0 Mississippi.
Knoxville entered the third hoping for another 5-goal period to at least take the game into overtime. Instead, they found a Mississippi team running at full offensive strength. Eight minutes into the third and on yet another power play, Rusty Masters got Lee to bite on a fake pass and banked it off the net minder as he sprawled on the ice to make it 6-0 Surge.
Jason Beeman added salt to the wound when he made it 7-0 during a stretch of five-on-three action as Knoxville’s two best scorers, Tyler Fletcher and Rob Sich, sat in the box.
The game took a nasty turn when Valliquette ran over Zaniboni in the crease, causing plenty of friction and drawing the Knoxville forward a five-minute major and a game misconduct. The subsequent power play allowed Beeman to pick up his second of the night to close the scoring for the Surge.
Knoxville’s Jason Weeks denied Bill Zaniboni his first shut-out of the season by scoring off a pass from Jason Ford and Fletcher with just 14 seconds left in the game to close out the score sheet.
Now the series moves to Knoxville and the smaller, tighter ice at the Civic Coliseum where the Surge were blanked in their only visit this season. They will need to win at least one of the two games there while the Ice Bears will look to sweep the pair to move to the finals.
Game Notes: Mississippi was 5-for-8 on the power play while Knoxville was 0-for-5… Bartholomy had 2 goals and 3 assists to pace the Surge offense…The final shot count was 53-23 in favor of Mississippi…The lone spot in the game for Mississippi came when a one-timer from Knoxville’s Emery Olauson hit Glenn Cacaro in the midsection, sending him to the locker room for the remainder of the third period…Ice Bears’ forward David Segal and Mississippi’s Chris Chambers each received game misconducts in the final minute of play. Segal was assessed his for inciting an opponent while Chambers was tagged for leaving the bench during an altercation.
Kristina Shands is a media consultant with the Knoxville Ice Bears and contributing writer for the blog, Chicks Who Give a Puck. Contact the author at kristina.shands@prohockeynews.com
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