BILOXI, Miss. – On their march to the SPHL regular season championship and the William Coffey trophy, the Mississippi Surge took no prisoners as their high-powered offense left many in its wake. Friday night that wake pulled the Columbus Cottonmouths under as the Surge rode a four goal third period to a 6-2 victory at the Mississippi Coast Coliseum, closing out the best-of-five series in four games and sending the first-year team into the Presidentâs Cup championship series against the Huntsville Havoc. Chris Greene and Tim Velemirovich each scored two goals for the Surge in the game which for the second straight night saw blood literally on the ice. âThe last thing you want is to be upset by the sixth seed after working so hard to be the number one seed. It is a huge relief (to win the series),â Mississippi coach Steffon Walby said. âNow itâs the number one and the number two seed going at each other just like it should be. Thatâs what you play 56 games for.â The Surge entered the game minus Tom Boudreau who had broken his jaw blocking a shot in Game 4 Thursday night. They also knew that Columbus was going to throw everything at them in an effort to win to force a game five. Just as it had been 24 hours earlier, the first period was dominated by the goalies. Ian Vigier was lightning quick in between the pipes for Columbus as was Bill Zaniboni for Mississippi. The teams took turns beating on the otherâs net but the net minders stood tall as the stanza finished with no score. The middle period began with Columbus on the power play but it was Mississippi that had a golden chance to open the scoring. During the penalty kill, Greene got loose on a two-on-one break. He elected to shoot but Vigier made the stop and held on as Greene tumbled into him. Not to be outdone, Zaniboni stoned Will Barlowâs redirect of a shot from the point. Mississippi opened the scoring at 5:18 of the period. Green fed Jeff Grant who in turn got the puck to Nick Klaren. From what appeared to be an acute angle, Klarenâs shot handcuffed Vigier, clipping off the cuff of the goalieâs catching glove and into the net, bringing the home crowd to its feet in celebration. Just over three minutes later, the game took a sobering turn when Mississippiâs Ryan Bartle hit Cottonmouthâs forward Sam Bowles near the boards. The collision jarred Bowlesâ helmet loose just enough that his head was exposed when it violently hit the glass. Bowles went down bleeding from the head wound, appearing to be momentarily knocked cold. Doctors and both teamsâ trainers attended to him before he was taken off on a stretcher and to a nearby hospital where CT scans were negative. Bartle received a five-minute elbowing major and a game misconduct. Despite the fact that referee Brent Coulombe rang up Snakesâ forward Ryan McCarthy for a roughing minor, Columbus still came out of the situation with a three minute power play. They were able to cash in when Levi Lind and Tim Green combined to set up rookie Jesse Cole for a goal at 11:56 that tied the score. The scoreboard remained knotted up until the 18:04 mark. Matthew Larke put the puck on the stick blade of Velemirovich who quickly skated into shooting range. Columbusâ Kyle Lundale came over to meet him but Velemirovich got off a shot that beat Vigier to restore Mississippiâs slim one-goal lead. Walby said that the goal by Velemirovich was a huge key to the game. âIt was great. What a patient goal. We had worked a lot on zone entry with the guys criss-crossing and pushing the defensemen off and pushing them back,â Walby said. âHe came in and was patient, patient, saw his opening and fired it. That was what we needed.â Seconds after that score, Mississippi had another rush into the Cottonmouthâs end led by Greene. Once again, the play ended with Vigier making a save and then finding himself tied up with Greene. A scrum broke out and when the dust had settled, Columbus found itself killing a penalty and down a man as Tyler Johnson was tossed for allegedly making an obscene gesture toward the Surge fans as he headed to the penalty box. âI think it was more of a gesture toward the fans,â Columbus coach Jerome Bechard said about the call on Johnson. Across the way, Walby thought that it was a sign that the visitors were unraveling. âBefore we knew it, their normal players who are undisciplined took charge and it was pp (power play) for the rest of the night and we took advantage of it,â he said. Bechard grew angrier early in the third when he felt that Mississippiâs Daryl Moor got away with an infraction just seconds before Surge defenseman Steve Weidlich made an end-to-end rush. As the Columbus defense fell back, Weidlich found an opening and whipped a shot past Vigier at 2:17 to push the lead to two goals. Three minutes later, Velemirovich netted his second of the game to make it 4-1 Surge just 5:37 into the third. Columbus continued to fight and cut the margin back to two on a power play. With Mississippiâs Shane Wagner in the box, Brent Clarke and Cottonmouthâs captain Craig Stahl, who was playing the final game of his stellar career, set up Orrin Hergott for his second goal in two nights to make it 4-2 with a little more than eleven minutes still to go. Seconds later, Columbusâ McCarthy, in what Bechard thought was a play similar to what Mississippiâs Greene had done earlier, drove for the net and collided with Zaniboni. McCarthy was hit with a goalie interference penalty. Teammate Dan Leslie questioned the call and was thrown out on an abuse of officials game misconduct. âThat was another pivotal point of the game. Ryan McCarthy went hard to the net and got a penalty for goaltender interference where Greene had done that twice to Vigier and no call,â Bechard said. âDan Leslie skates by him (Coulombe) and says âare you kidding me? Greene did it three times already tonight and youâre going to call that?â and thatâs what he got thrown out for. At that point weâre in the box short (handed). Itâs 4-2 and we actually had things going a little bit, we had some life and he (Coulombe) snuffs it out.â Now down three skaters, the Cottonmouths fought hard but could not dent Zaniboni any further. Greene would score twice down the stretch, one coming on a short-handed break when his shot deflected in off of the skate of a defender, to seal the victory and a date with Huntsville in Biloxi on Wednesday night. After the game, Walby was excited about the finals series coming. âItâs going to be a fast, hard-hitting, energetic, specialty-team filled series,â he said. âI canât wait.â Game notesâŠAttendance at the MCC for the series-clincher was announced at 2,624…On the evening, Mississippi was 0-for-8 on the power play while Columbus was 2-for-5. In the series, the Surge were 3-for-29 against the Cottonmouthsâ 5-for-17…Velemirovich and Matt Zultek led Mississippi in scoring in the series, each picking up six points. Columbus was paced by Hergott who tallied five pointsâŠVigier made 34 saves in taking the loss in net for Columbus while Zaniboni stopped 31 of the 33 shots he faced to pick up his third playoff winâŠThe best-of-five finals series will start Wednesday, April 14 in Mississippi. Game 2 will be Thursday also in Biloxi before the series shifts to Huntsville for Game 3 on Saturday, April 17. If necessary, Game 4 will be in Huntsville on Tuesday, April 20 with a possible Game 5 slated for Thursday, April 22 back in Mississippi. Contact the author at don.money@prohockeynews.com
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