COLUMBUS, GA – Coming off a big win over Fayetteville Friday night, the Columbus Cottonmouths played host to the Louisiana IceGators at the Columbus Civic Center on Saturday, January 31st. Unfortunately for the home team, any momentum left over from the night before was lost as the IceGators pulled out a 5-4 overtime victory.
The teams’ two netminders, Louisiana’s Marco DiFilippo and Columbus’ Shannon Szabados, battled to a scoreless draw through the first fourteen minutes of the opening frame. Then at the 14:23 mark, the IceGators drew first blood when Chris Wilson and Shawn McNeil helped set up Mitchell Stretch who beat Szabados. A little over four minutes later, the Cottonmouths evened the score with a power play goal off the stick of Tyler MacPherson off of assists from Craig Simchuk and Max Cook.
The second period was a wild one during a seven minute stretch in which four goals were scored. Columbus’ Andy Willigar gave the Cottonmouths their first lead at the 6:05 mark with Kyle Johnson and Patrick McCadden earning assists. A penalty to Levi Lind just shy of three minutes later led to Louisiana tying the score with a power play tally by Bret Peppler. Kirk Byczynski and McNeil were credited with helpers on the score.
The IceGators regained the lead at the 11:02 mark when Clark Byczynski and Tanner Burton combined to set up Phil Bushbacher who made it 3-2 Louisiana. Two minutes later, Mike Switzer and Nick Curry did the work to set up Shawn Bates who lit the goal light to once again pull the Cottonmouths even.
DeFilippo (36 saves) and Szabados (39 saves) settled back into a defensive struggle as both kept the puck out of the net through the final six minutes of the second period and well into the third. Louisiana jumped back in front with one tick under three minutes left when Jake Hauswirth took a feed from Jeremy Boyer and beat Szabados. Jordan Ciccarello picked up the secondary assist. The lead lasted all of 37 seconds before Simchuk and McCadden made the plays that led to Kyle Johnson beating DeFilippo to tie things up.
The game went into overtime where the IceGators pressed the Cottonmouths defense heavily. With just nine seconds remaining in the extra period, Ciccarello got the puck to Chris Wilson who was able to put it into the net to give Louisiana the win.
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