HUNTSVILLE, ALA. – One of the featured battles within the war between the Columbus Cottonmouths and the Huntsville Havoc was the one pitting the 2011 and 2012 SPHL Goaltenders of the Year. With one game in the books in the SPHL President‘s Cup semifinals, advantage to this year’s model.
Ian Vigier celebrated being named the best goalie this past season by notching his first career playoff shutout and Sam Bowles scored twice as Columbus defeated Huntsville 5-0 Wednesday night at the Von Braun Center. The Cottonmouths will have a chance to wrap up the best-of-three series with a victory Friday night when the teams travel to Columbus Friday night.
Coming off a six day layoff, Columbus didn’t want to have any letdown against the Havoc who had knocked off top-seeded Augusta in the first round. Both teams came out ready and willing to shoot, giving Vigier and Huntsville goalie Mark Sibbald plenty of chances to shine. The first 13 minutes of the game were a clinic in goaltending as both netminders made a series of breathtaking saves.
The visiting Cottonmouths got on the board first when Bowles led a two-on-one break into the Huntsville end. Using teammate James Durham as a decoy, Bowles faked the pass and shot instead, beating Sibbald at the 13:59 mark for what would turn out to be the game-winning goal. It was the only goal of the opening period as the teams headed to the intermission with Columbus ahead 1-0.
Carrying the lead and feeling confident thanks to Vigier’s play, the Cottonmouths opened the middle stanza aggressively, testing Sibbald’s mettle with four early shots. Just past the five minute mark, Columbus was able to double its lead. Rookie defenseman Andrew Krelove got off a shot from the point that Sibbald got a piece of but couldn’t control. It squirted away into the crease where Mitch Wall pounced on it and jammed it into the open net.
Huntsville had a chance late in the period to crawl back into the game when Columbus was called for too many men on the ice, giving the Havoc a man advantage. The power play backfired when the Havoc turned the puck over in their own zone to Cottonmouth Greg Beller who quickly stuffed it past a surprised Sibbald. The short-handed goal made it 3-0 in favor of Columbus and took a lot of the air out of the VBC and the Havoc’s fans.
Comfortably ahead, the Cottonmouths defense took over in the third, swallowing up the Huntsville offense every time it entered Vigier’s end of the ice. What shots did get through, Vigier was ready each time, frustrating the home team. Bowles picked up his second goal of the game at the 7:08 mark of the final period and Derek Pallardy added one more with just over six minutes left in regulation to cap the night for the second-seeded Cottonmouths, who are now just one win away from their first trip to the finals since the first year of the SPHL’s existence.
Game Notes: Columbus’ Durham picked up his first two points as a professional. He drew an assist on Wall’s goal in the second period and added another on Bowles’s third period tally…Vigier finished the game with 25 saves and is now a perfect 3-0 this year in the playoffs…Sibbald made 26 saves in the loss, his second of the playoff season…Neither team scored on the power play as the Cottonmouths were 0-for-2 while the Havoc went 0-for-1…Stuart Stefan led the Huntsville offense with four shots on net…All of the semifinal and finals games will have four-man officiating crews. Colin Kronforst and Tyler Puddifant worked the game as the two referees assigned by the SPHL…Attendance for game one was 1,993.
Contact the author at lee.marion@prohockeynews.com
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