COLUMBUS, Ga. – Columbus Cottonmouths’ rookie forward Levi Lind has had what many would call a charmed season. Second on the team in scoring with 52 points in 56 games. Membership on the SPHL All-Rookie Team. Consideration for league Rookie of the Year. Saturday night, Lind added another line in his highlight book, scoring the game-winning goal with 58.2 seconds left in the first overtime to lift Columbus to a 5-4 home victory over the Mississippi Surge in Game 2 to their best-of-five series at one game each. Lind’s goal capped a night that saw the Cottonmouths lose a two goal lead and fall behind before Daryl Moore sent the game to extra hockey with 12.7 ticks left in regulation. “I definitely think this is the number one (highlight) by far because this was a game I would say it was pretty close to a must win – as close as you can get anyway,” Lind said. “Getting that first win under your belt in the playoffs is key too.” The winning goal came on Columbus’ third power play of the night when referee Curtis Marouelli called former Snake Daryl Moor for boarding on Kyle Lundale with 2:21 remaining in the overtime. On the big play, Jesse Cole brought the puck across the Mississippi blue line, splitting a couple of defenders before feeding Lind who banked his shot off the short side post and the back of Surge goalie Bill Zaniboni and in. Mississippi wanted to put Columbus in a deep hole by winning Saturday’s game and started off well. Less than a minute into the game, Matt Zultek raced into the Columbus end. He shot from the far circle but it missed the net, caroming off the end boards out to Jeff Grant on the opposite side of the net. Grant shoveled the puck toward Cottonmouths’ goalie Ian Vigier who seemed to lose it in his skates and pads which allowed the rubber to sneak into the net at the :50 mark. Columbus, who had beaten Mississippi three times on home ice, needed a quick response and they got it. With the Snakes buzzing around the Surge end, Orrin Hergott was able to get off a shot that Zaniboni stopped but the rebound came out to Will Barlow who popped it over the goalie’s shoulder to tie the score. Three minutes later, the home team took the lead thanks to a nifty move. Cole grabbed a loose puck in the Mississippi end and went below the goal line. He fed Tim Green along the side boards and curled to the other side of the net. Green came off the boards and made a spin move to leave a defenseman in the dust. He tried to pass to Cole but it was blocked right back to him. He decided to shoot this time and beat Zaniboni at the 6:01 to put his team up. The lead for Columbus doubled at the 12:23 mark when while killing a penalty, Sam Bowles made a steal in the attacking zone, moved in and put a shot past Zaniboni’s stick side to make it 3-1 where it stayed through the end of the period. “I thought we played timid. I thought we played a little bit scared,” Mississippi coach Steffon Walby said about the first period. “We weren’t throwing the puck at the net. We weren’t cycling down low.” The second period was a hockey fan’s dream. The play was up and down the ice and Marouelli let the boys play, calling just one late penalty. It was playoff hockey at its scintillating best. Mississippi had the better of the play in the middle period, and its only score. At the 9:12 mark, defenseman Shane Wagner got the puck at the point and blasted a shot on net. Vigier made the stop but the rebound came to Tom Boudreau who was standing at the edge of the crease. Boudreau grabbed it and sent it into the back of the net to close the margin to 3-2. The third period was, in a word, crazy. The Surge continued to press for the tying goal and got an early power play on which they capitalized. Chris Ferazzoli and Tim Velemirovich teamed up to move the puck to defenseman Jack Wolgemuth for an open shot. Wolgemuth’s blast screamed past Vigier’s blocker and in, knotting the score at 3-3. The Cottonmouths were hit with back-to-back penalties to Dan Leslie and Tyler Johnson at the 7:48 and 9:21 marks respectively, giving the Surge its seventh and eighth man-advantage chances, which Columbus killed off. Then at 12:21, Columbus coach Jerome Bechard was called for a bench minor for disputing a call – or in this case what the coach perceived as a non-call – setting Mississippi up on power play for the fourth time in the period. This time they cashed in when Ferazzoli redirected a shot from the point by Nick Klaren past Vigier at 13:59 to give the Surge the lead by one. “I got the bench penalty. I felt very responsible for what happened (the power play goal),” Bechard said. “You can’t give that team nine power plays and expect to keep them off the board.” The Cottonmouths stormed the Surge end for much of the remaining time in regulation. Zaniboni continually frustrated them, leading to Bechard pulling Vigier for an extra attacker in the final minute. With most of the 1,762 in attendance on their feet, Columbus got a face-off in the Mississippi end. The Surge won the draw but Moore snuck in off the wing and intercepted it. He raced for the slot area and got just enough room to send a shot by Zaniboni to tie the game and set a celebration both on the ice and in the stands. Much of the overtime period was spent in the Columbus end as the Surge looked for the goal that would send them into a commanding series lead. Time and time again, Vigier was up to the challenge, stopping all 11 shots he faced in the extra period. Then with time running down, Mississippi’s Moor followed Lundale into the near corner and pounded the defenseman into the boards. When Lundale went down and stayed down – it appeared he may have been briefly knocked out – Marouelli’s arm went up for the penalty that led to Lind’s game-ending heroics. “Levi’s going to score a whole lot of big goals in his career. He played a phenomenal game,” Bechard said. “He finally did what the coach told him to do – that was shoot the puck.” Game notes: For the game, Mississippi out shot Columbus 49-42 including 11-6 in the overtime…In the first two games of the series, Mississippi is a combined 2-for-14 on the power play while Columbus is 3-for-7…The 79:02 of game time was the fourth longest playoff game in league history. Later in the evening, it dropped to fifth when Knoxville and Fayetteville went to double overtime before the Ice Bears evened their series with a win that took 97:04 to complete…The Surge headed home after the game to practice for the next couple of days before returning to Columbus for Game 3 on Thursday night. Game 4 will be back in Biloxi on Friday. Contact the author at don.money@prohockeynews.com
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