COLUMBUS, GA – The Columbus Cottonmouths wanted badly to finish out their 2014-2015 SPHL regular season home slate with a win on Friday, March 27th. The Huntsville Havoc however had other ideas, parlaying a big first period into a 6-4 win.
The visiting Havoc struck for three goals against Columbus goalie Shannon Szabados before the game was four minutes old. The first came just 56 seconds in when veteran Ray Ortiz lit the lamp off of assists from Dave Williams and Zack Dailey. At the 2:22 mark, tough guy Aaron McGill showed his goal-scorer side when he beat Szabados with the lone helper going to Nick Wheeler. Less than 90 seconds later, Wheeler and Jarred Mohr combined to set up Jacob Johnstone to give Huntsville a three goal lead.
Columbus started to stage a comeback with a pair of power play goals just 15 seconds apart. At the 7:42 mark, Shawn Bates scored off of an asist from Neilsson Arcibal. That goal was quickly followed by one off the stick of Kyle Thomas at 7:57. The assists on Thomas’ tally were credited to Louis Belisle and Bates.
Before the middle frame ended, Huntsville would have its lead bumped back up to two scores. Jordan Reed did the honors, putting the puck in the back of the net at the 12:52 mark with Johnstone and Justin Tateson picking up the assists.
Reed scored his second of the night 3:58 into the third period to put the Havoc back up by three. Stuart Stefan and Justin Cseter got the assists on the Reed tally. Columbus again attempted a comeback, Bates notched his second of the game at the 14:11 mark with assists from Mike Switzer and Belisle. Then at the 17:00 juncture, Arcibal and Switzer got the helpers when Nick Currry beat Huntsville goalie Jesse Kallechy to make it 5-4.
Kallechy, who finished with 28 saves, shut the door after Curry’s score. Huntsville’s Williams sealed the victory with an empty net goal off a feed from Stefan with 13 second remaining.
Szabados ended the night with 23 saves. Her first full season stats concluded with a 15-9-1-0 record, a 3.12 goals against average and a .907 save percentage.
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