COLUMBUS, GA – Put together two long-time rivals in a home-and-home set of games with a long bus ride in between and more often than not you get contests with plenty of bad blood. That was the case last Saturday night when the Fayetteville FireAntz visited the Columbus Cottonmouths at the Columbus Civic Center.
In a contest that featured no less than four fights, Columbus goalie Andrew Loewen made 23 saves to pick up his ninth straight victory as the host Cottonmouths defeated Fayetteville 3-2.
The pleasantries between the two squads began just 3:25 after the opening faceoff when Columbus’ Will Aide and Fayetteville’s Brad Drobot went at it. Tensions increased six minutes later when Cottonmouth Kyle Thomas was awarded a penalty shot but was denied by FireAntz netminder Curtis Martinu.
Columbus opened the scoring at the 13:55 mark of the first on a power play. Thomas and Shawn Bates drew the assists when Andy Willigar beat Martinu. It was the lone score of the frame.
The second period was a wild one that had almost nothing to do with scoring. In the span of just over two minutes, three separate fights broke out. Thomas had his second bout of the night at 6:46 against Fayetteville’s Trever Hertz. Twenty-two seconds later, Columbus’ Craig Simchuk went at it with Drobot. The trio of brawls concluded when FireAntz forward Kyle McNeil dropped the gloves with Columbus’ Chris Bailer.
Each team was able to score late in the frame. Fayetteville pulled even when Derek Elliott set up John Clewlow to make it 1-1 with less than three minutes left. The Cottonmouths got that goal back at 19:01 when Max Cook scored off an assist from Loewen.
The home team extended its lead 6:15 into the final frame when Cook set up teammate Mike Switzer for a goal. Fayetteville pulled back within one with a power play goal by Corey Tamblyn at the 13:42 mark off an assist from Matt Robertson. It would be as close as the FireAntz would get as Loewen slammed the door shut.
Fayetteville’s Martinu finished with 39 saves in suffering the loss.
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