Whitehead paces Ice Flyers to playoff win

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. – So much for a lack of playoff experience or being less than perfect being a factor. Paced by Matt Whitehead’s two goals, the expansion Pensacola Ice Flyers opened the 2010 SPHL President’s Cup playoffs by defeating the Huntsville Havoc 3-1

in Game 1 of a best-of-three first round series Wednesday night at the Von Braun Center. Pensacola now can close the series out at home with a win in Game two on Friday. In his pre-game remarks, Pensacola coach Todd Gordon had emphasized that in order to win his team would have to be perfect. While they may not have played perfectly – giving up nine Huntsville nine power plays – the Ice Flyers were successful literally from start to finish. “They (Huntsville) were in first place for 90 percent of the season,” Gordon said. “They’re arguably the best team in the league.” The first playoff game in Pensacola’s SPHL history didn’t seem to awe the Ice Flyers as they jumped into the lead just 15 seconds into the game. Whitehead struck the opening blow, taking a pass from Brian Deeth and converting it into the back of the twine past Havoc goaltender Dan McWhinney. Scoring on its first shot on net seemed to spark Pensacola. They struck again at 8:19 of the period when Rob Campbell doubled the lead to 2-0 on a feed from former Havoc player Dan Buccella. While the Ice Flyers were finding success, the Havoc, in what would be a game long problem, failed to convert on three first period power plays and 15 shots on goal. Huntsville played a penalty free first period but found itself trailing by two going into the first intermission. Havoc goalie Dan McWhinney was able to keep Huntsville close by making several nice saves after the first period goals and in the first few minutes of the second period. It proved to be important when Pensacola had its worst mental breakdown of the game. With Paul Falco already in the penalty box , Ice Flyers’ defenseman Baylor Dieter was assessed a delay of game penalty at 11:14. Clearly not happy with the Havoc power play power outage on the three opportunities in the first period followed by a squandered man advantage earlier in period two, Huntsville coach Randy Murphy called his one timeout of the game. Whatever he said to his troops worked as Justin Rohr took advantage of helpers by forward Mike Carter and defenseman Bill McCreary from his point position to halve the deficit 22 seconds after the mid-game talk. It would be the lone tally of the second stanza as Pensacola took a 2-1 lead into the third. The last period was intense as both winning goaltender Ryan Scott and Huntsville’s McWhinney kept the game close and winnable for either team. The Havoc were unable to duplicate their man-advantage success from the middle period, failing on two chances before the third was half over. The outcome stayed unsettled until Pensacola’s Whitehead scored his second goal, this one unassisted, with just over two minutes left in the game to seal the win for the Ice Flyers. For the game, Huntsville out shot the Ice Flyers 31 to 27 as Scott won the goaltending duel by allowing just the lone power play goal to the Havoc. The two teams will resume action Friday night at the Pensacola Civic Center with a 7:05 p.m. CDT scheduled face off. Game three will be held on Sunday in Huntsville if needed. Game notes… Attendance for the mid-week game was announced at 2,003…Pensacola’s power play was shut out by the Havoc, going 0-for-5 in the game…Huntsville coach Murphy’s wife Kerry presented the coach with healthy twin boys Tuesday. Mom Kerry and Cole Robert Murphy (5 lbs) and Carter Ryan Murphy (5 lbs, 14 oz) are doing well at Huntsville Hospital. Cole and Carter join sisters Alexandra and Raegan in the Murphy family. Contact the author at Phil.Brand@prohockeynews.com