KNOXVILLE, TENN. – Sometime being the higher seed in a playoff series can be a good thing. Then there are those times when it can be a disaster. Wednesday night at the Knoxville Civic Coliseum, the third seeded Knoxville Ice Bears experienced the bad side.
Led by the two-goal performance of Jeff Topilko and 26 saves from goalie David Wilson, the sixth-seeded Mississippi River Kings stole home ice away from the Ice Bears with a stunning 6-3 victory in game one of the teams’ best-of-three series. The River Kings now have a chance to close out the heavily favored Knoxville team Friday night at the Landers Center in Southaven.
Playing at home where they are tough to beat, the Ice Bears started off hot, ripping off the first four shots of the game, including one by Emery Olauson that Mississippi goalie David Wilson had to make a great save on. When the River Kings found their skating legs, they went to work and notched the next seven. The third one in that run came off the stick of Jeff Topilko. Chevan Wilson won an offensive zone draw back to Topilko at the top of the circle. He whipped a shot that caught Knoxville starting netminder Kyle Rank by surprise, especially when he saw it behind him in the net.
With the visitors up by one, Knoxville had a couple of opportunities to tie the score but the referee’s whistle reversed both plays. The first came when Mark VanVliet appeared to have poked the puck past Wilson only to have referee Kevin Curtis say he blew the whistle for losing sight of the puck. Not too long after, Wilson tried to trap the puck against his leg near the post. Referee Curtis, who appeared to be behind the net blew the play dead just as Olauson popped it past the River Kings netminder.
Finding themselves still in front, the River Kings doubled the lead thanks to a Knoxville turnover. A clearing pass through the middle was intercepted by Mississippi’s Darrell Stoddard who fed teammate Matt Whitehead for a shot on Rank. Rank made the initial save but the puck dropped to the ice where Mark Magnowski banged it home at the 13:24 mark. The Ice Bears finally got on the board just under two minutes later when Brad Pawlowski drove into the Mississippi end and left a drop pass for Kevin Swider. Swider looked up and found Olauson who fired the puck past Wilson to trim the margin to 2-1.
The River Kings took advantage of another Knoxville give away before the stanza ended to once again go up by two. Topilko picked off an Ice Bears pass in the slot and without thinking fired a quick backhander between the legs of Rank to give his team a 3-1 lead that they took to the break.
Knoxville coach Mike Craigen, obviously frustrated with the play of his team and the two negated goals, said all the right things at the break because his guys came out with a purpose. The Ice Bears completely dominated the first half of the middle period and pulled even before the stanza was four minutes old. An early Mississippi penalty gave Knoxville a power play 40 seconds in and it took just nine ticks for Swider to set up Olauson for his second goal of the game. A minute later, the River Kings were back in the penalty box and once again the Ice Bears power play cashed in. Swider set up shop underneath the goal line and found David Segal standing in the slot. Segal took the pass and beat Wilson to knot the score at three.
With renewed confidence, the Ice Bears stormed the River Kings defensive end, keeping Wilson busy and using every part of his body – including his mask – to keep Knoxville from going ahead. With Wilson fighting hard, the Mississippi offense regained momentum when Whitehead took the puck and made a perfect aerial pass over a sliding defenseman to Stoddard who chipped the puck past Rank to put the River Kings back up by one with seven minutes left in the period. Less than four minutes later, River King Paul D’Agostino got the puck on his stick and fired toward the Knoxville net. As the shot came in, Deven Stillar made a beeline toward Rank, partially screening the Ice Bears rookie netminder. Rank knocked down the D’Agostino shot but before he could corral the rebound, Stillar got his stick on it and slid it home for Mississippi’s fifth goal. The tally also was the end of Rank’s night as Craigen replaced him with backup goalie Matt Hache.
Once again finding his team down by two at the intermission, Craigen hoped he could find the right motivational words but unlike the middle period, Wilson and the River Kings were ready. The teams went back and forth, trading sequences of shots. Hache made several pretty glove saves but Wilson matched him save for save. With 1:35 left in regulation, Craigen pulled Hache for the extra attacker but the strategy quickly failed when five seconds later, rookie Justin MacDonald banked the puck off the boards and into the empty Knoxville net to produce the final score.
Game Notes: Attendance at the Knoxville for the unusual Wednesday night game was 1,075…Final shots for the game favored Knoxville 29-24…The Ice Bears went 2-for-5 on the power play while Mississippi failed on their one opportunity…Swider’s three assists give him 45 for his career as well as bringing his career playoff points total to 60, both at the top of the list in the record books. The game itself was his 39th post-season contest which puts him third on the all-time list.
Contact the author at don.money@prohockeynews.com
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