KNOXVILLE, TENN – It has been a couple of seasons since the Knoxville Ice Bears have been to the SPHL’s President’s Cup finals. Coach Mike Craigen and his current team decided that this would be the year and on Friday night made it happen.
Dennis Sicard scored 11:50 into the second overtime period to lift the fifth-seeded Ice Bears to a 5-4 victory and a sweep of their best-of-three semifinal series over the Louisiana IceGators. Knoxville now moves on to the finals against the fourth-seeded Mississippi RiverKings. Because of ice issues in Mississippi, all three games of the championship series will be played in Knoxville starting on April 16th.
The host Ice Bears opened the scoring in the first period when Francis Drolet and Robbie Donahoe helped to set up Ben Power who beat Louisiana goalie Scott Diebold at the 4:45 mark. The sixth-seeded IceGators, who outshot Knoxville 15-7 in the frame, answered back at 13:23 when Jeremy Boyer lit the goal light behind Ice Bears netminder Bryan Hince off assists from Brian Berger and Jake Hauswirth.
Hauswirth gave the visitors their first lead of the game midway through the middle stanza when he scored. Assists on the play went to Boyer and Kirk Byczynski. Less than five minutes later, Knoxville pulled even when Brett Valliquette and Ryan Hill combined to get the puck to Sy Nutkevitch who scored. Louisiana took the lead again before the frame was over when Chris Wilson took a feed Stephen Buco and found the back of the net. Byczynski picked up his second point of the game with the secondary assist.
Knoxville again tied the score, this time 8:06 into the third period when Power set up Eric Satim who beat Diebold. Just under three minutes later, Louisiana’s Wilson notched an unassisted tally to give the IceGators a 4-3 lead.
The IceGators thought they had things in hand but Knoxville had other plans. With just over a minute left in regulation, Berkley Scott became the hero of the night when he beat Diebold to knot the score for the fourth time. Power picked up his third point and Drolet his second by drawing the assists on the key score.
The teams went at it in a spirited first overtime period which ended in a draw thanks to the work of Hince (49 saves) and Diebold (28 saves). In the second extra frame, Jason Price made the key play, getting the puck to Sicard who ended the contest and Louisiana’s season by putting the puck in the back of the net.
The Ice Bears will now battle the RiverKings, who won a pass into the finals by beating the two-time defending champion Pensacola Ice Flyers in three games. Game one of the finals is set for Thursday, April 16 with Game two scheduled for Saturday, April 18. If a third game is needed, it will be played on Sunday, April 19. All games are set for a 7:35 pm puck drop.
Follow us on Twitter @prohockeynews
You must be logged in to post a comment.