COLUMBUS, GA – In sports, talent usually is the difference between winning and losing. Sometimes however, luck can change all of that in the matter of a split second and a bounce.
Thursday night at the Columbus Civic Center, the Columbus Cottonmouths welcomed Lady Luck with open arms when Sam Bowles scored eight minutes into the first overtime to give the Cottonmouths a 3-2 win over the Louisiana IceGators. The victory gave Columbus a two-game sweep of the best-of-three series, allowing them to sit back and relax to see who they will play in the SPHL President’s Cup semifinals next week.
Just prior to Bowles’ game-winner, Louisiana thought it had tied the series to force a game three. Having already peppered Cottonmouths netminder Ian Vigier with eight shots in the extra period, IceGator forward Jay Hill fired a shot that beat Vigier cleanly but clanged off the crossbar before getting to Columbus’ Orrin Hergott. Hergott head-manned the puck to Greg Beller who busted into the Louisiana zone where he slid a pass to Bowles who one-timed it past Louisiana goalie Jeff Rose to end the game.
“I was actually asking for Orrin to pass to me earlier but he saw Beller and made a great play to him,” Bowles said. “Beller then made an unbelievable pass to me and I didn’t even think. I got it, shot it and luckily it went in.”
It was a tough way to lose for the IceGators who were making their first ever SPHL playoff appearance.
“I thought we played very well. We dominated the third period and overtime,” Louisiana head coach Kevin Kaminski said. “We hit the post and they come back down and scored. How many times have you seen that? I don’t know if you can play much better than that on the road.”
The ending was the final twist in what turned out to be a game of two halves. For a good portion of the first two periods, Columbus seemed to be in control of the contest. Late in the first period, John Sullivan staked the home team to a lead and then doubled the margin when he one-timed a pass from Beller into the back of the net mid way through the second.
With momentum squarely in the Cottonmouths’ corner thanks to Sullivan and the stellar goaltending of Vigier, the game took a turn late in the middle period when Columbus’ Peter MacDougall took a double minor penalty. The call gave Louisiana just over 30 seconds of power play time to end the second with the rest coming at the start of the third.
“After we took that penalty, it really hurt us,” Columbus head coach Jerome Bechard said. “We never really got our legs going and they kept the tempo up. They sent three and four man rushes on us and that’s how they scored their goals.”
Early in the third, Louisiana capitalized on the man advantage when with ten seconds left on the power play, Tyler Lyon beat Vigier to cut the lead in half. Just over two minutes later, former Cottonmouth Ryan Pearson found Hill open in front and the All-SPHL second team member whipped a one-timer home to even the score with almost three quarters of the period left.
Neither team would score in the rest of regulation time, setting up the overtime period and the dramatic finish.
Despite the loss, IceGators head coach Kevin Kaminski was extremely proud of his team, especially Rose who stopped 48 of 54 shots in the two games.
“Rose came in late and played well for us. We lost BJ O’Brien to the CHL late in the year and that hurt us. We claimed Rose off waivers and he came in and did a great job,” Kaminski said. “He played very well. He made some timely saves and kept us in it to go to overtime.”
Although he was disappointed with the outcome, Louisiana forward Shawn McNeil said that he and his teammates were encouraged and thankful for the support from the fans in Lafayette.
“We appreciate their support. It was an up and down season and I hope they appreciate how much effort was put out there if they were watching the game,” McNeil said. “I don’t think they could be disappointed with the effort but hopefully they enjoyed our hockey and continue to support what we’re doing and building towards.”
Over in the other locker room, Vigier was just happy that his team was moving to the next round.
“Once it hit the post, I thought thank you and then I saw them rushing to the other end,” he said. “After Sammy scored, I had to thank the post so I went back to the crossbar and gave it a little kiss.”
Game Notes: Louisiana out-shot Columbus 40-32 in the game. Over the two contests, the IceGators held a 70-55 advantage…Vigier finished the series with 66 saves…Columbus will now get to rest and wait to see who they will play next. After the entire first round is completed, the SPHL will reseed the remaining teams.
Contact the author at lee.marion@prohockeynews.com
You must be logged in to post a comment.