Peoria, IL – You almost expected Ogie Oglethorpe to skate out of the tunnel.
Oglethorpe wasn’t available, but retired enforcer David Segal was. So was retired goaltender Andrew Loewen.
Twelve players on the Columbus Cottonmouths roster on Saturday night had a combined nine games experience in the SPHL this season. Their bus had crashed just a few miles short of Peoria. The injuries decimated their line-up. The Friday game was postponed. With the help of the league, Columbus was able to cobble together a lineup to play Saturday.
In the end it was an overtime thriller, with Peoria prevailing 5-4 in front of a huge crowd of 8,396. After a brief celebration, the Peoria crowd saluted the Cottonmouths and the two teams embraced on the ice.
Loewen looked like he missed retirement when he allowed a goal on the second shot he saw. Just 105 seconds into the game, Brandon Greenside’s slap shot beat Loewen stick-side and it looked like the route was on.
Loewen would go on to have a very solid first two periods, stopping 21 of 23 shots.
But it wasn’t. Teams traded shots and stops until Evan Neugold found Alexander Taulien behind the Rivermen defense. Tailien skated it against Tyler Green all alone and slid a low shot past him to even things up at 16:24 of the first period.
Four goals in the second period saw the Cottonmouths open a three-goal lead at one point. Alex Kromm scored through traffic and then Segal, yes David Segal, snuck behind the Rivermen defense and beat Green just over a minute apart to take and increase the lead. Keegan Bruce, whose father played for Peoria back in 1990-91, scored as well, setting Columbus up with a three ol lead before the second period was half over.
Connor Gorman cut the lead to two with a goal for Peoria at 12:35 of the second period.
The third started off well for Peoria when David Olivieri puled the Rivermen within a goal at 2:34 of the period on a power play.
With time ticking away Peoria found itself facing a 5-minute penalty kill. With most of that erased, Michael Colantone took a feed from Justin Hoomian and pushed across the tying goal, shorthanded. With the score tied 4-4, the game headed to overtime.
Overtime was a classic battle of offence versus goaltending. At one point, Loewen turned away three quality shots in a row, keeping his team in the game. Green, for his part, stopped a breakaway, as well. In the end it was Olivieri again, alone, with a behind the back move with the puck to beat the defender and then patience, keeping the puck across the goal mouth, deking Loewen down and then around before roofing a shot and ending the game.
Loewen, for his part, kept Columbus in the game all night. With 31 saves on 36 shots, his numbers do not really reflect his effort. Tyler Green stopped 29 of 33 shots in the win.
The two worst power play teams in the league went one for six with the man advantage. The big difference being the late shorthanded goal by Peoria.
Standing Ovations: World Series MVP Ben Zobrist, who grew up in the area, received a standing ovation as he dropped the first puck and received a key to the city…A second standing ‘O’ and plenty of stick-taps for about a dozen first-responders who worked the accident scene in Morton, IL.
Game Notes: Andrew Loewen pocketed an assist on the Segal goal…The stage for a post-game conceit displaced the goalie judge. Instead of his usual booth, he had a seat on the stage…Instead of a red light, the goal judge was equipped with a towel to wave…after the game, the Columbus team – about 30 strong – took group photos in front of the bench as a post-game concert played on. ..Juilianna Zobrist, wife of Chicago Cub and World Series hero Ben Zobrist, played a post game concert…About half the announced attendance stuck around for the concert.
Contact the author at Shaun.Bill@ProHockeyNews.com, or follow him on Twitter @SLBatPHN
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