BILOXI, Miss – As the number of games left in the regular season dwindles, teams are gearing up for the stretch run of the SPHL year. Playoff positioning is on the line every night, making every point earned or lost important. No team knows that better than the Mississippi Surge.
Under the watchful eye of head coach Jeff Bes, the defending President’s Cup champions have been looking for consistency for much of the year. With their schedule crawling under 20 games left before the post-season, the Surge took a big step in the right direction over the past weekend, taking four of a possible six points by beating the Pensacola Ice Flyers and Columbus Cottonmouths before falling to the Mississippi River Kings in a late Sunday afternoon battle.
Friday night’s tilt at the Mississippi Coast Coliseum against Pensacola was the first action for the Surge in a week’s time. The visiting Ice Flyers got the early jump at the 7:21 mark of the first period when winger Matt Robertson found the back of the net behind Mississippi net minder Kiefer Smiley. It would turn out to be the only blemish on the night for Smiley, who was named the SPHL’s SBK Player of the Month for January, as he stopped 17 of the 18 shots he faced in the contest.
Five minutes after Robertson’s tally, the Surge pulled even on the power play when center Adam Stuart scored the first of his two goals on the evening. Nick Guran and Matt Ridley assisted on the tally at 12:39. The game remained tied into the first intermission which featured a Mardi Gras-themed parade on the ice.
A little past the five minute mark of the second period, Stuart struck again, putting the puck past Pensacola (and former Surge) goalie Corey Milan to give Mississippi the lead for good. It would be the only goal of the period as Smiley and Milan kept the red light quiet into the second intermission.
The goaltending battle continued into the final period as the defenses tightened up, giving the net minders the opportunity to make saves. As time would down, Pensacola coach Todd Gordon pulled Milan for an extra attacker in an attempt to get the game-tying goal. The Surge were able to put the game away when winger Rob Campbell put the puck into the empty net with 31 seconds left to secure the 3-1 victory.
Mississippi then headed to Columbus to take on the Columbus Cottonmouths who had beaten their arch-rivals from Knoxville on Friday. The game also marked the return to the Surge net for Nick Eno, who because of being called up to the ECHL on two occasions had not started a game for Mississippi since late December.
Following a scoreless first period, the Surge silenced the large Legends Weekend crowd at the Columbus Civic Center with a pair of middle stanza tallies. The first came off the stick of defenseman Matt Ridley who notched a shorthanded goal at the 6:37 mark of the period. Then with under a minute to go before the second intermission, former Cottonmouth Matt Kinnunen continued his recent hot scoring streak by finding the back of the net.
The rest of the night belonged to Eno, who stopped every shot thrown at him to record his third shutout of the season. Jeff Grant picked up assists on both Surge goals to lead the offense.
With two wins under their belts, the Surge returned to Biloxi for a game against their in-state rivals from Southaven. Playing for the third time in less than 48 hours, the Surge fell to the RiverKings by a final of 4-1 in front of 1,274 fans at the Mississippi Coast Coliseum.
The RiverKings got on the scoreboard first. Right winger Kevin Fukala got the goal during a late power play opportunity in the opening period. Fukala’s tally was one of eight shots on net by the visitors in the first period. Down the other end of the ice, RiverKings goalie David Wilson faced eleven shots, stopping every one of them.
The Surge began the second period with a flurry of eight straight shots before the RiverKings could even get one on Eno. As the tension rose, so did the tempers. Midway through the period, the Surge’s Billy Siers and the RiverKings’ Fukala dropped the gloves and went at it, each receiving a fighting major for their troubles. The Surge ended up out-shooting the RiverKings 10-5 in the period but the scoreboard stayed unchanged as the visitors took their slim one goal lead to the third.
The Surge started the final period just as they had the second, peppering Wilson with shots. It was however the RiverKings who lit the goal light first when Deven Stillar beat Eno 3:10 into the stanza, doubling the lead to 2-0. Just over two minutes later, the Surge cut the margin in half when newcomer Philip Ischi solved Wilson and found the back of the net with the assists going to Stewart and Colin Reddin.
The RiverKings responded to the Ischi goal with one of its own 28 seconds later. Jeff Topilko was the scorer this time as Stillar and Ken Selby combined to set him up. The goalies took the game back over, especially Wilson who turned back shot after shot as the Surge swarmed the RiverKings end. Down by two, Bes pulled Eno but ten seconds later, Matt Whitehead sealed the win with an empty net goal at 18:40.
For the game, Wilson, who was named first star, turned back 40 of the 41 shots he faced while his counterpart Eno stopped 15 of the 18 RiverKings shots he saw. Neither team’s power play was particularly effective as the Surge went 0-for-7 with the man advantage while the RiverKings were 1-for-4.
With the two wins, the Surge (19-7-3) sit in sixth place with 41 points. They trail fifth place Pensacola by just two points and fourth place Louisiana by four. It will be another busy week as the Surge head to Lafayette for a Valentine’s Day tussle with the IceGators followed by another three games in three days stretch with home contests Friday against Louisiana and Saturday with Pensacola followed by a Sunday trip to Southaven to face the RiverKings. Contact the author at pat.mcarthur@prohockeynews.com
