Surge take over fifth place spot

BILOXI, MS – One of the hardest jobs in sports has to be the schedule maker. Charged with fitting the availability of multiple buildings in various cities during a set period of time, the person doing the work can make enemies quickly. Just ask the Mississippi Surge.
For the third weekend in a row, the Surge faced a daunting three games in three days schedule last weekend. This time all of the travel was on Friday as the Surge went to Lafayette to face Louisiana before coming home to take on the IceGators and the Mississippi RiverKings. The Surge took advantage of the lighter travel to win the two home games after falling on the road.
The Surge and IceGators don’t need a tight playoff race to create tension but when the teams took the ice at the Cajundome Friday night, the two points were just as important as the rivalry. The visiting Surge got on the scoreboard first when right winger Shawn Skelly found the back of the net

behind Louisiana netminder Dan Earles at the 13:19 mark of the opening period. It was the lone score of the opening stanza as Surge goalie Kiefer Smiley stopped all eleven shots he faced.
The Surge started strongly in the middle period, doubling their lead before the stanza was three minutes old. Playing with a man advantage, defenseman James Isaacs took a pass from Tyler Ruel and beat Earles with a shot to make it 2-0. Following the Surge score, Louisiana started to wake up offensively. At the 13:04 mark, IceGators center Jordan Oye was able to push the puck past Smiley to cut the Surge lead to 2-1. Despite the Surge having a 14-6 advantage on the shot board, they only led by that one slim goal heading to the final period.
Knowing that the IceGators would try to mount a comeback, the Surge came out hard in the third, out-shooting Louisiana 7-0 early in the third. Earles was gaining confidence with every save he made and that confidence gave his teammates new life. As the tension grew, tempers grew shorter on the ice, leading to a fight between Louisiana’s Tyler Somerville and the Surge’s Isaacs. When the dust settled, Isaac went to the box for a minor penalty while Somerville received two minutes for instigating, five for fighting and a game misconduct for inciting an opponent. During the subsequent Surge power play, Louisiana was able to tie the game at two on Eric Tallent’s short-handed tally. Then with just 1:24 left in regulation, Ice Gator right winger Shawn McNeill beat Smiley for what proved to be the game-winning goal.
Amazingly, the Surge out-shot the IceGators 18-7 in the final period but failed to beat Earles. For the game, Earles made 33 saves on 35 Surge shots to earn the victory while Smiley stopped 30 of Louisiana’s 33 shots in the loss.
The two teams then turned around and headed back to Biloxi for the back end of the home-and-home set at the Mississippi Coast Coliseum. The Surge hoped that the friendly confines of the MCC would help reverse their fate after the loss the night before. The Surge started fast as Rob Campbell brought the home crowd to its feet when he beat Earles just 1:57 into the game. It was the only score in a fast-moving, uneventful period which saw the IceGators outshoot the Surge 11-8.
The middle stanza saw a significant rise in the Surge’s level of play. They out-shot the IceGators 11-6 and with goalie Nick Eno playing solidly, the home team got the offense untracked. The team also drew some fire from winger Billy Siers who engaged the IceGators’ Somerville in a spirited battle. Not too long after the fight, Skelly notched his second goal in asmany game by beating Earles at the seven minute mark to double the Surge lead. It stayed that way until the final two minutes of the period when Campbell struck for his second goal of the game to give the Surge a 3-0 lead going into the second intermission.
The third period started with the Surge on a five-on-three power play thanks to two late second period Ice Gators penalties. At the 1:39 mark of the period, Surge winger Nick Guran pushed the puck into the back of the net behind Earles to increase the lead to 4-0. Surge fans certainly thought the game was all but over but the IceGators had other ideas.
Less than two minutes after Guran’s score, Louisiana winger August Aiken blasted a shot past Eno to put the IceGators on the board. Then at the 5:47 mark, Alex Morton lit the red goal light to draw Louisiana within two. When Josh Duplantis beat Eno at the 11:14 point, the IceGators had scored three unanswered goals and pulled within 4-3. Surge coach Jeff Bes settled his troops down and over the next seven minutes they stiffened up on defense. Guran scored his second of the game with just under two minutes remaining to give the Surge a little more cushion. Louisiana coach Kevin Kaminski pulled Earles seconds later looking for another goal but the strategy was foiled when Ruel hit the empty net with 1:22 to go to seal the Surge win.
After a good night’s sleep in their own beds, the Surge rose on Sunday to host the RiverKings. The game also marked the Surge’s third annual “Pink in the Rink” game with the team wearing special jerseys to be auctioned off at a later event at the Beau Rivage Casino and Resort in Biloxi.Building on the previous night’s success, the Surge came away with a 5-3 win over their in-state rivals in front of 1,748 fans.
The first half of the opening period was extremely quiet as each team mustered only two shots on net. The crowd got into the contest at the 10:30 mark when Surge defenseman Nicholas Kuqali and RiverKings forward Deven Stillar dropped the gloves and went at it. It was the start of a penalty-filled ten minutes that included a second fight featuring the Surge’s Glenn Cacaro and the RiverKings’ Darrell Stoddard.
The scoreboard started lighting up with goals in the second. Three minutes into the stanza, the Surge found themselves down two men thanks to two penalties. The RiverKings cashed in when Stillar put the puck past Surge goalie Smiley into the net at 3:02. 44 seconds later, the RiverKings were still on a one-man advantage when Kyle Lundale connected for his team’s second power play goal to make it 2-0. That lead lasted all of 50 seconds before Ruel scored the Surge’s first goal of the game at the 4:36 mark.
Right off the face-off following the Ruel goal, Siers and RiverKings winger Kevin Fukala partook in a heavyweight brawl. With the crowd fully into the game following the fight, the Surge pulled even at the 8:03 mark when Skelly popped one past RiverKings netminder Scott Darling. Both Darling and Smiley settled in and kept their opponents at bay for the rest of the period.
The Surge came out in the third and pounded seven shots on Darling before Smiley even saw his first shot. Things were pretty even until the10:50 mark when Ken Selby bested Smiley to put the RiverKings up 3-2. It lasted for all of 14 seconds before the Surge’s Guran picked up an unassisted goal that knotted the score at three. Neither team gave an inch over the next few minutes, leaving fans to wonder if there was an overtime in their future. Guran solved that question when he beat Darling with just over a minute left in regulation. RiverKings coach Derek Landmesser pulled Darling for an extra attacker but the move failed when Campbell scored into the open net with three ticks remaining to produce the 5-3 final.
With the two wins, the Surge jumped into fifth place in the SPHL standings ahead of Louisiana and just behind Pensacola. After a stop in Pensacola Tuesday night, the Surge continue on the road with games in Huntsville on Friday and at the RiverKings on Saturday.
Contact the author at pat.mcarthur@prohockeynews.com
Contact the photographer at tom.rogers@prohockeynews.com