BILOXI, MS – Heading into the playoffs, most coaches will tell you that getting hot at the right time can mean a long run in the post-season. Teams with momentum can easily get on a roll and stay there.
After watching their four-game winning streak ended Tuesday night, the Mississippi Surge were looking to get back on the winning track. They were able to do so as they defeated the Fayetteville FireAntz 4-1 on Thursday then backed it up with a 4-2 victory against the Louisiana IceGators on the road in Lafayette on Friday.
The first bonus for the 1,484 fans who filed into the Mississippi Coast Coliseum was the return of defenseman Matt Ridley and winger Chris Chambers to the Surge lineup. The joy of getting two players back was muted quickly as Fayetteville opened the scoring just 1:47 into the contest. Doing the honors for the FireAntz was winger Mike Forgie as he beat Surge starting goalie Kiefer Smiley. Three minutes later, Fayetteville’s Chris Rebernik took a slashing penalty that gave the Surge a needed power play. They made the FireAntz and Rebernik pay when winger Shawn Skelly blasted the puck past goalie Mike Brown at the 5:47 mark of the period to tie the score.
The rest of the first period was a defensive struggle that featured Smiley and Brown in a netminders’ duel. Brown was the busier of the two as he faced 15 Surge shots while Smiley saw seven FireAntz shots but the score remained tied at one into the first intermission.
The offenses continued to sputter as the middle stanza opened. While Fayetteville mustered just one shot on net during the entire period, the Surge eventually found their scoring touch and took advantage. A little past the five minute mark of the stanza, Surge defenseman Nick Klaren found the range with a blast that made its way past Brown. Not to be outdone, fellow blue liner Scott Jenks hit the back of the net behind Brown to light the goal light for Mississippi’s third score.
Holding a 3-1 lead heading into the third period, the Surge wanted a little more insurance and got it quickly. 18 seconds in, Adam Stuart increased Mississippi’s lead to three when he beat Brown. The goal excited the home crowd but not as much as events later on did.
With just under nine minutes left in regulation, Fayetteville’s Josh McQuade was whistled for cross checking. With the frustration level of the FireAntz growing, the two teams began a pushing and shoving match that quickly escalated when Brown and Smiley began yelling at each other. Seconds later, the pair were at center ice as they shed their masks and gloves and entered into a sparring match. Both were tossed from the game. Neither replacement, Nick Eno for the Surge and Erik Hudson for Fayetteville, allowed anything to get by them as the teams combined for six shots over the final minutes.
On Friday, the Surge piled onto the team bus and headed west to Lafayette to take on the IceGators. For the first time since both franchises joined the SPHL, both have qualified for the playoffs – in this case the very first time for the IceGators – so each team was playing to tune up for the post-season.
The first period started with each team playing fairly well both offensively and defensively. The lone penalty of the period came five minutes in when Louisiana’s Eric Tallent was nabbed for elbowing but the Mississippi power play failed to take advantage. Shortly after killing off the penalty, the IceGators drew first blood on the scoreboard when Tyler Fernandez fired a shot past Surge goalie Nick Eno at the 8:08 mark. It stayed that way until the closing minutes of the stanza when Mississippi’s Rob Campbell got the puck past Louisiana netminder Dan Earles to tie the score. By the time the buzzer sounded, the Surge had out-shot the IceGators 17-10 in the period but the score was still tied at one.
The middle period was much more defensive in nature (the teams combined for a total of 14 shots) but the Surge were able to make the most of their chances. The stanza was a mere 39 seconds old when Mississippi winger Shawn Skelly lit the red light behind Earles after Nick Klaren set him up. Just past the midpoint of the period, the Surge went on their second power play of the game and this time they cashed in. The man advantage was only 28 seconds old when winger Jeff Grant got the puck past Earles to push the lead to 3-1.
The final period looked a lot like the second both in its tenor and how it started. Looking for a knockout punch, the Surge got it at the 2:34 mark when Tyler Ruel lit the lamp to increase the lead to three. Knowing that time was starting to become a factor, the IceGators picked up the pace, trying to force the Surge into mistakes. The pressure led to a Mississippi penalty to Nick Guran for hooking and Louisiana scored on the ensuing power play when Tallent beat Eno. The goal at 11:30 was the final tally of the night as Eno shut out the IceGators the rest of the way.
The 3,112 in attendance at the Cajundome were treated to one final bit of entertainment when Louisiana’s Jason Hill and Mississippi’s James Isaacs dropped the gloves and went at it with five seconds left in the contest. Both players got their money’s worth of punches in before the linesmen stepped in. After order was restored, the puck was dropped and the final seconds ran off to close out the Surge victory.
Mississippi out-shot Louisiana 30-25 in the contest. Neither team was impressive on the power play as the Surge went 1-for-6 and the IceGators were 1-for-4. The Surge are off until Tuesday when they host the first-place Augusta RiverHawks at the Mississippi Coast Coliseum.
Contact the author at pat.mcarthur@prohockeynews.com
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