KNOXVILLE, TN – When Fayetteville FireAntz coach Tommy Stewart established the goal, it seemed simple enough: split the first two games of the SPHL finals on the road in Knoxville. In order to do it, however, he needed his team to play as perfect a game as it could.
It wasn’t perfect but with Goalie Guy St. Vincent playing like he did down the stretch and backed by two goals from third-liner Mike Ruberto and rock-solid penalty killing, Fayetteville came away with a 3-1 victory to even the series at one win apiece. The series now shifts to Fayetteville for games three, four and five next weekend.
“Our penalty kill was the reason we won tonight. It kept us in the game,“ Stewart said after the win. “It could have been over in the first period if they had gotten a couple of power play goals and they didn’t and it kind of motivated us. It was a good team effort.”
The FireAntz knew they couldn’t afford to give up an early goal like they had in game one. When Brett McConnachie took a slashing call three minutes in, it seemed like déjà vu from Friday night. This time, Fayetteville was able to summon up a solid penalty kill, thwarting the potent Ice Bears’ offense.
Having the penalty killing units be confident became very important midway through the period as Fayetteville was called for three penalties in a row, giving the Ice Bears four minutes and twenty-seven seconds of straight power play time and two different five-on-three advantages. St Vincent came up huge, including during one 29 second stretch where he logged four key saves. Spurred by the defensive effort, the FireAntz began to put some pressure on Knoxville net minder Andrew Gallant who stopped everything he saw, sending the game to the intermission scoreless.
“I thought it was disappointing. We’ve got guys who can definitely bury the puck and it just didn’t go in,” Knoxville coach Scott Hillman said. “Unfortunately, as is often the case, you see something like that go by and then all of a sudden the other team scores quickly. Thankfully that didn’t happen but ultimately in the end if you end up losing the hockey game when you blew a lot of chances on the power play, you look back and say that was our chance.”
Much of the second period was a back and forth battle between St. Vincent and Gallant. The two went save for save, keeping the game scoreless through the mid point of the contest and later. Finally, with just 1:41 remaining in the stanza, Fayetteville found a way to break the deadlock. Rob Colangelo had the puck on his stick and saw teammate Mike Ruberto open. Ruberto, who was subbing for McConnachie on the third line, took the pass and somehow banked the puck off of Gallant’s back and into the net for the game’s first goal.
The ‘Antz knew that Knoxville would come out in the third and put pressure on the defense and St. Vincent. Fayetteville was able to weather the early minutes of the period before finally getting the insurance it needed in the form of two goals in the space of 1:48. The first came on a power play when defensemen Bob Rapoza and Lawne Snyder combined to set up Rob Sich for his second of the series. Not too long later, Colangelo sent an aerial pass to Ruberto who calmly knocked it down and slid the puck through Gallant’s legs to push the lead to 3-0 with 9:49 left in regulation.
For most teams, a three goal deficit is huge but with the firepower Knoxville has, no lead is safe. The Ice Bears began their attempt at a comeback with a power play goal by Tim Vitek at the 14:11 mark with assists going to Bobby Joe Pelkey and Kevin Harris. Knoxville had three more man advantages in the final five minutes as Fayetteville seemingly couldn’t stand its prosperity. The Ice Bears failed to convert any more of their chances and the FireAntz headed for their bus with the split they wanted.
Even though they are heading for the road, Hillman said his team is confident that they can keep Fayetteville from winning the President’s Cup with a sweep at home.
“We expect to go in there and win a hockey game or two. Obviously there’s a little bit of pressure now that they’ve stolen the home ice,” he said. “It’s a long series and there’s definitely no need for us to panic. We’ll just go in there and do the best we can to steal one or two out of that building.”
For Stewart, Saturday’s win was a big lift for his squad, especially now that the teams have five days off until game three on Friday.
“It’s big. Knoxville is a great team that plays at home and for us to come in here (and win) – they hadn’t lost in the playoffs or for that matter in the regular season they didn’t lose that much – it’s a huge momentum swing,” he said. “I think (having five days off) it’s going to make for much better hockey. I know both teams finished Wednesday and then we had to come here and play Friday and Saturday. With a week off, guys who are banged up will get healed up, get refreshed and get back to battle Friday night.”
Game notes…Attendance at the Knoxville Civic Coliseum was 2,519…Once again, Knoxville’s power play was uncharacteristically off, going 1-for-8 while Fayetteville was once again 1-for-2…Ruberto’s two goals were his first points of the playoffs…Vitek’s goal was his seventh of the playoffs and 13th point, both tops in the SPHL…St. Vincent has started all seven games in net for Fayetteville this playoff season.
Contact the author at don.money@prohockeynews.com
You must be logged in to post a comment.