Former FHLers lead Augusta to series win

AUGUSTA, GA – When the 2010-2011 season began, Jim Gehring and Peter Skoggard were playing in the brand new Federal Hockey League. Gehring, a forward, and Skoggard, a goalie, both played for the Broome County/Cape Cod Barons who failed to make the FHL playoffs.
Sunday night, Gehring scored two goals and Skoggard won his seventh consecutive start to guide the Augusta RiverHawks to a convincing 6-2 win over the Pensacola Ice Flyers in the winner-take-all game three of their first round playoff series at the James Brown Arena. The second-seeded RiverHawks will now move on to face the cross-state Columbus Cottonmouths for the right to go to the SPHL President’s Cup finals.
Just the fact that the series was coming down to a deciding game may have been a surprise to some but not to the Ice Flyers. Coach Todd Gordon’s

proved that by forcing a return to Augusta. On the other side of the ice, Augusta coach Brad Ralph needed to get his RiverHawks to quickly forget Saturday’s loss and focus on the task of regaining their swagger from game one.
Showing confidence in his roster, Ralph decided to start Skoggard in net, replacing Jon Olthuis who had played the first two contests. Pensacola tested the young net minder early with shots from Erik Stoyanovich and Kevin Kozlowski but the rookie made both stops. Down the other end, Ice Flyers’ goalie Ryan Scott, playing in his third straight game, was challenged by a shot by Branden Kosolofsky and the rebound try by Ryan Olidis but made both saves.
Augusta really didn’t get its offense going until the last twelve minutes of the first period. In fact, the RiverHawks recorded the last seven shots of the stanza as their defense completely clamped down on the Ice Flyers. Thanks to the work of Scott, the teams went to the first intermission scoreless.
Just as they had in the first, Pensacola opened the middle period quickly, putting four shots on net in an attempt to rattle Skoggard. The strategy failed but the pressure kept Augusta from opening up its speed game.
The RiverHawks opened the scoring at the 4:34 mark when Drew Baker, another former FHL player, set up Gehring for his first of the night. As they had all series long, Pensacola came up with a quick answer when Rookie of the Year Chris Wilson beat Skoggard 58 seconds after Gehring’s tally to tie the score.
Not wanting to give the Ice Flyers any momentum, Augusta ramped up its offense by applying pressure and puck control in the Pensacola zone. The territorial advantage led to five straight shots by the home team, including a drive by Gehring that Scott made the save on but Olidis was in position to shove the rebound home to put Augusta back in front.
Late in the period, Augusta’s Branden Kosolofsky was called for boarding, giving the Ice Flyers an opportunity to go on the power play.They only had two shots on the man advantage but the second one paid off when Wilson set up Tanner Shultz for a drive that beat Skoggard to tie the score with 2:18 left before the intermission.
As it turned out, Pensacola had left too much time on the clock before the break. With less than 30 seconds to go, Olidis picked up his second assist of the period when he fed Matt Auffrey who deposited the puck behind Scott to send Augusta into the intermission ahead 3-2.
Looking at possibly the final twenty minutes of their season, the Ice Flyers needed to increase their pressure on the RiverHawks in hopes of forcing turnovers or creating chances. Unfortunately for them, the RiverHawks were able to control more of the action, holding Pensacola to four shots in the first eleven minutes while putting five of their own on the Ice Flyers net.
With 8:51 left in regulation, Augusta parlayed some pressure into a two-goal lead. Kosolofsky fed a pass to Travis Dunstall who fired a shot that Scott stopped. He was not able to control the rebound and Lucas LaBelle was there to bang it home. Just under a minute later, Labelle set up Gehring for his second goal of the night. It put the RiverHawks up 5-2 and sent the Ice Flyers into full desperation mode.
Pensacola had a chance to cut into the deficit with 6:15 to go when Matt Whitehead whipped a shot on Skoggard and Tyler Barr was there to grab the rebound for a second chance opportunity. The Lulea, Sweden native Skoggard stood tall in making both saves to maintain the lead. Dunstall finished the scoring with an empty-netter in the final minute to seal the win.
Game Notes: Attendance at the JBA for the deciding game was announced as 1,234…Skoggard finished the game with 30 saves to pick up the win while Scott stopped 25 shots in suffering the loss…Pensacola’s power play went 1-for-4 in the game and finished the series with a 2-for-18 mark. On the other end, Augusta went 2-for-13 with the man advantage in the three games including going 0-for-2 in the deciding game…The RiverHawks’ Kosolofsky finished the series with six assists, tying him for the post-season scoring lead with Mississippi’s Adam Bartholomy who has three goals and three assists and Rusty Masters who has tallied two goals and four assists…Augusta’s Auffrey had three goals in the series to tie Bartholomy for the playoff goal-scoring lead…Although the schedule for the semifinal series between Augusta and Columbus won’t be announced until Monday, it is expected that game one of the best-of-three will be played at the James Brown Arena on Friday.
Contact the author at don.money@prohockeynews.com