PENSACOLA, FLA – The Pensacola Bay Center was more like Tombstone on Friday night, as Columbus defeated the Ice Flyers 5 -2 in a literal slug fest that saw one player flat out on the ice and many get up very slowly from violent checks and hits.
The feud began during Thursday night’s 6-3 Cottonmouths’ victory in Columbus. During the first period, Pensacola’s Brett Lutes slammed hard into Columbus netminder Shannon Szabados and sent her sprawling into the net. A scrap ensued that left Columbus with a pair of penalties and a 2 minute penalty for Lutes. Cottonmouth’s head coach Jerome Bechard, incensed by the calls, jumped from the bench and onto the ice in pursuit of the official. “I don’t know where he’s going,” an announcer remarked, “but he’s not going to get there very fast in those loafers.”
Bechard was ejected and handed a single game suspension. Pensacola fans who witnessed the collision insist that Lutes was checked into Szabados and it was an accident. Still, the incident was enough to set the stage for what looked like a barroom brawl at the Hangar.
“It was just plain bad officiating on Thursday,” Bechard told PHN. “Once I tossed the water bottle I knew I was going to be thrown out. I figured as long as I was giving them a show I might as well go big. It fired up the crowd and the officiating was actually better after that.”
“The guys are going at the net harder than in years past,” Jerome went on to say. “I believe that it could have been an accident with Lutes, but the way it turned out with us being penalized was just too much. I just went off.”
On Friday, With Bechard in the stands and assistant coach Brad Prefontaine on the bench, Columbus suffered their only deficit of the game from a very early Pensacola goal by none other than Brett Lutes. The score was unanswered during the first period, as the Cottonmouths put up only 5 shots to Pensacola’s 15. However by 35 seconds into the 3rd period, even though Columbus had still only managed 14 shots they had 4 goals to show for it. For the second night in a row, SPHL February player of the month Max Strang had a less than .800 save percentage.
“We’re not playing precision hockey tonight,” Pensacola fan Mike Mabry said. “We’re playing like we have a score to settle. It’s not a normal game.”
Indeed, many of the checks from both teams were so wild that players were missing their targets and slamming themselves into the glass. At one point Pensacola defenseman Shaun Arvai actually tackled a player, although it went seemingly unnoticed and no penalty was called.
“We’re in our house tonight,” said Mabry. “We’re not taking any crap.”
A second period altercation between Pensacola’s Brett Beebe and Columbus’ Patrick McCadden sent both forwards to the box. When the 2 minutes wound down, both players were simultaneously released and immediately began pounding each other again. After the second and more visceral match, the players returned to the box for 7 minutes each.
The main event actually came in the first period and involved this weekend’s protagonist Brett Lutes. Lutes took a pair of swings from Cottonmouths’ Chris Bailer after attempting a close shot on Andrew Loewen (who blocked 29 of 31 on the evening). Lutes answered with one punch to the face that left Bailer down on the ice for over 3 minutes. Bailer eventually got up and skated to the bench, but went to the locker room with a towel on his face. It took almost 15 minutes for officials to clean the blood off the rink and continue the game.
“That’s the best knockout I’ve seen in years,” fan Ken Kelly said. “I’d hate to see what (Bailer) would have looked like if Lutes had taken his gloves off.” Bailer was back on the ice for the third period.
Lutes would spend the rest of the game as a target, getting shoved and checked at times when the puck was nowhere near him. At one point in the third period he was shoved by three different players as he skated across center ice, and then mysteriously sent to the penalty box for 2 minutes. “I think Brett Lutes just got a penalty for being pushed,” one Pensacola fan remarked to another.
The Cottonmouths were well represented at the Bay Center, with several hundred fans cheering them on and supporting their suspended coach.
“Jerome Bechard is a man who is full of determination on and off the ice,” Steven Simmons of Columbus said. “He shows true passion for hockey.” As a Columbus player in 2000-2001, Bechard amassed an astounding 421 PIMs in 65 games with the then CHL franchise and was nicknamed “Boom Boom”. The monicker still sticks today.
If he’s up for a few more minutes in the box, maybe for Saturday’s game in Pensacola he should suit back up.
Photos courtesy of Vanessa Johnson
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