Dunstall, Olthuis frustrate Cottonmouths

AUGUSTA, GA – Just down the road, Tiger Woods was making a statement on the fairways and greens at Augusta National. Inside the James Brown Arena, the Augusta RiverHawks made a statement of their own.
Backed by two power play goals from Travis Dunstall and the steady goaltending of Jon Olthuis, the RiverHawks secured a 3-0 win over the Columbus Cottonmouths Friday night at the James Brown Arena. Augusta now leads the best-of-three series one win to none and can book a trip to the SPHL’s President’s Cup finals with a win Saturday in Columbus.
Dunstall’s second goal with eight seconds remaining touched off a near-melee in front of Columbus goalie Ian Vigier. When the ice chips settled, Cottonmouths Will Barlow and Mitch Wall along with RiverHawks Dunstall and Branden Kosolofsky each earned inciting an opponent misconducts. Wall was also hit with a five-minute charging major during the fracas.
The heated ending was far from what either team or the fans probably were anticipating

when they arrived at the JBA. A mistake by building personnel left the air conditioning and cooling units for several hours. Everything was turned back on at approximately 2 p.m. but by then the ice was left soft and sticky, making passing the puck more about luck than skill.
Even with the bad ice, the tempo of the game in the first period was fast. Both teams were trying to go up and down the ice. The scoring chances came in bunches as Vigier and Olthuis alternated dealing with flurries of action in front of them. During Columbus’ first power play of the night, Vigier stoned Lucas LaBelle on a break-in and then seconds later Olthuis had to be quick to stop a shot by Daryl Moore and the rebound try by Matt Kinnunen.
Over the back half of the opening period, the Cottonmouths were the stronger team, dishing out more hits than the usually physical RiverHawks. The visitors also had the advantage on the shot sheet as they held Augusta to just one in the final ten minutes of the stanza while getting five of their own. The best may have been when Peter MacDougall grabbed an errant pass and fired but Olthuis made the save to send the game to the first intermission scoreless.
Columbus’ power play got its third opportunity of the night just 16 seconds into the middle period when Augusta’s LaBelle went off for boarding. Thanks to the RiverHawks’ aggressive penalty killers pressuring the points, the Cottonmouths’ man advantage passed quietly. When Augusta finally got its first chance on the power play, the RiverHawks made their guests pay. 36 seconds into the advantage, Kosolofsky drove into the Snakes zone and fed the puck to Dunstall. Dunstall saw Matt Auffrey to his left and laid a perfect pass to Auffrey who beat Vigier for the game’s opening goal.
Tempers began to flare midway through the period when a scrum broke out, sending three players from each team to the penalty box. The Cottonmouths would get a power play from the incident andanother one late in the period but all they found was frustration at the hands of Olthuis and the Augusta defenders. By the time the buzzer sounded, Augusta held a 19-18 margin in shots on net but more importantly had the 1-0 lead heading into the third.
To this point in the post-season, the final twenty minutes had been very good to the RiverHawks. In the two wins against Pensacola, Augusta outscored the Ice Flyers four goals to none so the RiverHawks came out looking to run the Cottonmouths out of the JBA. They hit Vigier with a barrage of six shots in the first three minutes of the stanza but the Columbus net minder refused to yield.
Augusta’s continual forechecking pressure kept the Cottonmouths from getting any real sustained play in the RiverHawks’ zone. That fact would become important when just 14 seconds after Columbus’ Levi Lind went to the box, Kosolofsky set up Dunstall for a backhander that got past Vigier, kissed the post and went across the line, doubling the home team’s lead with 13 minutes left in regulation.
As the time on the clock dwindled down, the Cottonmouths tried desperately to find the key to beating Augusta’s defense and Olthuis, who was looking forhis first career playoff shutout. The Snakes’ best stretch of offense came with less than five minutes left when they logged three consecutive shots from Kinnunen, Wall and Brett Hammond. The problem was that the opportunities were spread over the space of 1:18, each one a lone chance that Olthuis handled easily. All that was left was Dunstall’s second tally and the messages that both teams tried to send ahead of Saturday’s game on the Cottonmouths’ home ice.
Game Notes: For the game, Augusta out-shot Columbus 34-24 including a 26-13 advantage over the final two periods…The RiverHawks finished the night 3-for-4 on the power play while the Cottonmouths were 0-for-6 with the man advantage…Dunstall’s two goals give him five in four games to lead the league. Teammate Kosolofsky leads the SPHL in post-season assists with eight after picking up two in Friday’s game…Attendance for the game was announced as 1,501 which was not bad considering that many Augusta residents have left town in favor of renting their homes to golf fans attending the Masters…Should a game three be needed, it will be played Sunday night back in Augusta with the opening puck drop right around the time the green jacket is being presented to the winner at Augusta National. Contact the author at don.money@prohockeynews.com