COLUMBUS, GA – The Pensacola Ice Flyers (12-15-6) fought back in the third period before conceding to empty net goals late in the third to fall 5-2 to the Columbus Cottonmouths (11-19-2) on Tuesday night inside the Columbus Civic Center.
After the first period proved to be scoreless, Columbus took the 1-0 lead with 12:39 left in the second period thanks to former Ice Flyer Chad Brears. The Cottonmouths doubled their lead to 2-0 when Jonathan Turk connected on a power play with 3:02 left in the second.
Aaron Clarke got the Ice Flyers on the board when John Gustafsson stole the puck in the Columbus offensive zone and fed it over to Clarke. Clarke then skated the length of the ice, cut in towards the crease, and fired the puck home. The Cottonmouths reestablished a two-goal lead with another power play goal, this one by Alex Kromm, with a 11:36 remaining in the third period. Patrick Megannety made it a one-goal deficit again for the Ice Flyers with 3:12 remaining in the third. The goal was assisted by Clarke and Louis Belisle. Ice Flyers head coach Kevin Hasselberg elected to pull goalie John McLean to get an extra attacker on the ice but the decision didn’t work out and the Cottonmouths cashed in with empty net goals by Craig Simchuk and Andy Bathgate in the final 1:56 to make it 5-2.
McLean stopped 24 of the 27 shots he faced and his record now stands at 4-5-0.
Photos courtesy of Toni Hill
Text provided by official SPHL media release
You must be logged in to post a comment.