KNOXVILLE, TENN. – After winning game one of its best-of-three series, the Mississippi RiverKings looked to be in control of their destiny with two chances to send the Knoxville Ice Bears into summer vacation. Problem was in taking that victory, they violated a cardinal rule of nature: don’t poke the bear because the bear will bite back.
The RiverKings learned that painful lesson Sunday as led by the three-goal performance of Dan Bremner, third-seeded Knoxville defeated Mississippi 6-3 to win the series. The Ice Bears will now move on to face the Pensacola Ice Flyers in the SPHL’s President’s Cup semifinals beginning Thursday in Knoxville.
Bremner, who scored 13 goals in the regular season, book ended the victory by scoring the first goal of the game and the final two to bust open a close game. The two third period scores were part of a four goal outburst by the Ice Bears in support of another solid performance by rookie Kyle Rank in net.
From the outset, both teams wanted to physically intimidate the other, creating lots of hitting which kept the crowd in the game. Mississippi had the better of the scoring chances early, out-shooting Knoxville 6-4 in the first eight minutes. Then at the 8:30 mark, a bad offensive zone pinch led to a two-on-one break as Bremner and Kevin Swider broke in on an odd-man rush. Swider slid a pass to Bremner who fired a wrist shot high to the stick side and into the net behind RiverKings netminder Scott darling.
The Ice Bears’ lead lasted all of 41 seconds. Mississippi’s Ken Selby drove the puck into the Knoxville end and saw Deven Stillar coming into the play with him. Selby took the defense with him and fed Stillar who made one move and deposited the puck into the net to tie the score. It was the only goal that Rank allowed on 11 RiverKings shots in the first period, keeping the game knotted at the intermission.
Early in the second, Stillar had a chance to put Mississippi in front. He got loose in the Knoxville end, forcing Tyler Fletcher to impede him from behind. Referee Tyler Puddifant awarded Stillar a penalty shot but Rank came up big, making a pad save on Stillar’s try. Not too long after that, Knoxville had a golden opportunity of its own when Emery Olauson broke in alone on Darling but missed the net.
The Ice Bears regained the lead at the 13:35 mark of the period thanks to lady luck. During a power play, the puck took a funny bounce that fooled the RiverKings defense and headed toward the middle of the ice. It ended up on the stick of Eric Slais who fed teammate Eric Satim who scored. It proved to be the lone goal of the period as neither netminder gave up anything else the rest of the way before the second intermission.
The third period turned out to be a wild one. It started just 2:20 into the stanza when Brett Valliquette, facing a bad angle at the net, somehow found a way to sneak the puck between the post and Darling’s pad to increase the Ice Bears’ lead. Less than two minutes later, Olauson made up for his second period miss by taking a pass in front and zipping the puck between the legs of Darling to make it 4-1.
Looking down and out, the RiverKings rallied to get back into the game. At the 4:58 mark, an offensive zone face-off win paid off when defenseman Kyle Lundale’s drive from the point was redirected by Stillar past Rank to trim the lead to 4-2. Then just before the mid way point of the period, another successful win in the face-off circle paid dividends when a shot by Lundale found its way through traffic and into the back of the net. The goal brought the visitors back within one, causing more than a few of the 1,681 fans at the Knoxville Civic Coliseum to get nervous.
Knoxville dug its collective heels into the ice and answered the two scores by the RiverKings with one of its own. Swider made a great individual move to get a shot on net that Darling stopped. Unfortunately the Mississippi goalie couldn’t control the rebound which Bremner scooped up and fired home through a sea of legs and skates.
With a two goal lead restored, the Ice Bears relied on Rank to hold the fort. He stood up to eight RiverKings shots down the stretch. Bremner finished off his hat trick by scoring into an empty net with six seconds left to account for the final score.
Game Notes: Mississippi out-shot Knoxville 44-22 in the game…Rank made 41 saves, bringing his total in the series to 93 saves…The RiverKings went 1-for-9 on the power play in the series while the Ice Bears were a sizzling 5-for-11 with the man advantage in the three games…Swider’s three assists in game three brought his series point total to eight points, tops in the SPHL through the opening round…Game one of the Knoxville – Pensacola series will be played at Knoxville on Thursday with game two set for Saturday in Pensacola. If a game three is necessary, it will be played Sunday afternoon in Knoxville.
Contact the author at don.money@prohockeynews.com
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