Surge, RiverHawks ready for finals battle

BILOXI , MS  – A year ago, the Mississippi Surge were the surprise of the SPHL, winning the regular season championship and getting to the President’s Cup finals. This season, the Augusta RiverHawks took the league by storm, challenging for the top playoff seed until the last day of the season. And neither squad likes the other.
Tuesday night, the two franchises begin the final leg of the post-season run when the Surge host the in game one of the best-of-five finals at the Mississippi Coast Coliseum. Game two of the series is scheduled for Wednesday in Biloxi before moving on to Augusta for game three Friday night at the James Brown Arena.
Both teams enter the finals off of series that went the distance. Mississippi was

taken to the limit by a determined Knoxville team before the Surge won out in five games. Augusta had to go through two short series against Pensacola and Columbus with each best-of-three series coming down to the deciding game in Augusta.
The teams met six times during the regular season with the RiverHawks winning four times. Four of the contests were played in Biloxi where Augusta skated away with three victories. Each team won once in Augusta. All told, the RiverHawks outscored the Surge 18-15 but Mississippi won the shots on net war by a count of 218-155.
Special teams play during the regular season in the head-to-head match-ups was telling. Mississippi went 6-for-45 on the power play for a success rate of 13.3 percent. Augusta was a sizzling 9-for-36 with the man advantage for a 25 percent scoring mark. Averaged over the six meetings, the Surge had 7.5 power play chances per game while the RiverHawks got six opportunities per game.
Fourteen different Augusta players put up at least one point against the Surge. Leading the way was captain and league Most Valuable Player Matt Auffrey. The right winger hit for three goals (two of them short-handed) and six assists to go along with a team-best plus-5 rating.Ryan Olidis, Branden Kosolofsky and Neil Graham each tallied five points. Egor Mironov and Curtis Megginson both joined Auffrey and Olidis with three goals versus Mississippi.
On the other side of the ice, sixteen Surge players had at least a point against the RiverHawks. Center Rusty Masters led the scoring parade with three goals and four assists for seven points. Sniper Matt Zultek was the big goal scorer with five of his six points being lamp lighters. Former SPHL Rookie of the Year Michael Richard ( one goal, four assists), Jeff Grant (one goal, three assists), Greg Moore and Jeff Winchester (both with one goal and two assists) all had success.
The match-up between the pipes was very one-sided. Augusta’s Jon Olthuis was 3-1 with a shutout against Mississippi. Even more impressive were his 1.75 goals against average and .954 save percentage. Surge backup net minder Dan Earles played in four games against the RiverHawks, posting a 1-3 record and a 2.55 goals against average. Present starter Bill Zaniboni only saw 36 seconds in net versus Augusta, facing no shots on net.
In the post-season, the Surge have seven players who have put up four or more points.Richard (three goals, five assists) leads the parade with Masters and Adam Bartholomy chipping in three goals and four assists each. Defenseman Winchester also has seven points but all of his are assists. In net, Zaniboni may have a 3-2 record but his 2.37 goals against average and .912 save percentage are among the best in the league.
Augusta ’s playoff scoring numbers are just as impressive. Eight players have picked up four or more points with Olidis (four goals, four assists), Jim Gehring (two goals, six assists) and Kosolofsky (eight assists) all sitting at eight points. Travis Dunstall leads the SPHL with five post-season goals to go with two assists. Like his counterpart in Mississippi, Augusta’s Olthuis has a 3-2 record but he does have one shutout to go along with a 2.48 goals against average and a .938 save percentage.
The fact that the two teams don’t like each other is not a surprise but the level of the hatred is. Mississippi’s speed game and Augusta’s hard-nosed, physical play are complete opposites. It was the RiverHawkspenchant for taking the body however that led to most of the animosity.
During the regular season, Augusta had two players – Aaron McGill and Kevin Fukala – who hit anything and everything in sight. Hard. The Surge were especially irritated with McGill who was involved in hits that sidelined several Mississippi players. The last one was an open ice hit on last year’s Defenseman of the Year Steve Weidlich that effectively ended Weidlich’s season. Although many, including SPHL President Jim Combs, declared the hit legal, the Surge wanted retribution.
Surge coach Steffon Walby went out and signed Brandon Elliott to a three-game tryout contract to match up with McGill. When Elliott went after McGill following allegations of a verbal threat the day before, the league banned Elliott from playing but the die was cast.
For the record, McGill was banished for the season when he broke the jaw of Knoxville’s Mark VanVliet who was being held by a linesman. Fukala probably won’t see action in the finals either as the result of a match penalty he received in the series with Columbus for cross-checking a Cottonmouth player in the head after the final buzzer on the heels of taking a baseball-type swing at another opponent’s head.
Mississippi was not without its issues either. Zultek spent ten games in street clothes thanks to a run-in with Huntsville’s Bill McCreary. McCreary, a well-known antagonist, got under Zultek’s skin and the forward snapped, knocking McCreary to the ice before launching his entire body weight to follow his stick onto the back of McCreary’s head and neck.
The biggest factor in the series might be physical conditioning. After playing three games in three days over the weekend with travel, both teams had one day off before game one. If the series goes five games, it will mean playing eight games in the space of ten days – a daunting task for any player at any level.
Whatever happens, this series has the potential to be exciting and brutal, high flying and grinding, high scoring and defensive. Quite a potpourri but then again, that’s what playoff hockey is all about.
Editor’s Pick: All of the animosity aside, this series will probably focus on special teams and goaltending. Both Augusta’s Olthuis and Mississippi’s Zaniboni are playing at the top of their respective games. The first one who blinks could be in trouble because each squad has the capability of putting up eight, nine or ten goals and do it in a hurry. It goes without saying that staying out of the penalty box will be important as well. Mississippi enjoyed 36 power play opportunities in five games against Knoxville while Augusta was short-handed 35 times over the two series it played. The Surge are masters of drawing penalties so the RiverHawks will have to be careful not to be taking too many penalties which could change their style of play. Augusta’s youthful roster could come into play if the series goes full term because of the compressed scheduling. Mississippi has the incentive of wanting to finish what it started after losing in the finals a year ago. When all is said and done, the Surge get the job done in four and bring the President’s Cup home to Biloxi.
Contact the author at don.money@prohockeynews.com