Surge, Snakes duel for spot in finals

ORLANDO, Fla. – One team is a part of the foundation of the Southern Professional Hockey League. The other is rebuilding a foundation of hockey by claiming the top spot in the regular season. Starting Friday night, they will battle each other for a ride to the President’s Cup championship series. When the Mississippi Surge and Columbus Cottonmouths face each other at the Mississippi Coast Coliseum in game one of their best-of-five series, it will be a battle between the past and the future of the six year old league. The expansion Surge will be hunting for their first President’s Cup while the Cottonmouths will be looking to take a bite of the cup for the first time since the SPHL’s inaugural season. Despite the fact that the two teams finished 25 points apart, the season series wasn’t as lopsided as the standing might indicate. The teams met eight times with Mississippi winning five and Columbus three. The Surge won all four games at the MCC. The Cottonmouths took the first three games at the Columbus Civic Center but they were won in either overtime or a shootout. The last meeting in Georgia was the lone road win for either squad as Mississippi came away with a 5-2 victory. “It (the season series) was very physical but it was very home ice oriented. We came out of their building every single time with a point but in the playoffs that doesn’t matter,” Surge coach Steffon Walby said. “You’ve got to find a way to win. We were only able to find one win throughout the entire year. Home ice is going to be key but at the same time we certainly know each other in and out.” The team that Walby assembled scuffled early on but found its way and rode the wave straight to the top of the SPHL. They amassed a 20-8-0 record at home and were the only team to be above .500 on the road (14-6-8). Offensively they had the third most goals (210) while the defense was the stingiest in the SPHL, allowing a mere 165 goals. Mississippi’s special teams were just that as the power play was an astonishing 96-for-429 (22.38 percent) and the penalty killing led the league by killing 239 of 281 short-handed situations (85.05 percent). Much like the playoff series, Mississippi’s offense is a mix of names familiar to SPHL fans and players who are new to the circuit. Former SPHL Rookie of the Year Michael Richard (24-51-75) leads a list of four Surge forwards who topped

the 60 point mark. Tim Velemirovich (30-35-65) showed the talent that helped him lead Fayetteville to a title in 2007. Matt Larke (23-42-65) was one of the newcomers who made a big impact. The fourth member of the club, Matt Zultek, may be the most dangerous of all. Zultek rang up 47 goals, including a league-record 31 on the power play, during the season and added 21 assists. Walby’s defensive corps is solid but there will be one big question mark in the middle. SPHL Defenseman of the Year Steve Weidlich’s availability is a question mark because of a freak injury where he was cut across the neck by a skate blade. If  Weidlich can’t go, Walby will look to steady performers like Glen Cacaro (0-5-5, plus-7), Jack Wolgemuth (6-18-24, plus-3) and Nick Klaren (7-16-23) to pick up the slack. Goaltending isn’t an issue for the Surge. Early season acquisition Bill Zaniboni (23-7-4, 2.48 goals against) has been the backbone of the team. He tied the league record for most shutouts in a season with fourand was just named SPHL Goaltender of the Year. His backup will be Dan Earles, who spent time with Knoxville and Huntsville this season before landing in Biloxi. He’s been through the playoff wars and Walby is confident that he can do the job if called upon. Walby said that a key for his team will be the ability to match Columbus’ physical play while at the same time staying within themselves and not getting rattled. “We’re going to have to be able to push back. Columbus is a very physical team. They’ve got skilled guys and guys who haven’t really achieved much but have a lot to prove,” he said. “We’re going to have to keep our composure. All along, we’ve had a very good mindset of knowing when to stir the pot and knowing when to sit back and watch it boil. I think if we can do those couple of things and buy time until everybody gets back to being healthy, I like our chances.” Truthfully, Columbus coach Jerome Bechard would probably agree with his fellow coach’s assessment of the Cottonmouths. Sixth place is certainly not where the team and its fans expected to be. Still, with the playoff format sending the winner of the series straight to the finals, it is an opportunity for Columbus to recapture its swagger. Consistency was not a word in Columbus’ vocabulary this season. The Snakes (22-27-7-51 points) went through stretches where the offense was OK but the defense and goaltending was off. Then there were other times where the blue liners and the goalies were on but the scorers struggled. In the month of March, Columbus went 3-7-1 including the final stretch of three losses in games at home to Mississippi and on the road at Fayetteville and Huntsville on consecutive nights. The team scored 171 goals but gave up 201, not a big difference over 56 games but enough to keep it under .500. The Snakes were a strong 17-8-3 at home but just 5-19-4 away from the Columbus Civic Center. The Cottonmouths’ power play was successful just 16.49 percent of the time (48-291) but their penalty killing was solid at a kill rate of 83.18 percent (272 kills on 327 chances). “We’ve had a tough go of it here as of late. Our schedule has been murderous the last two weeks. Once we clinched (a playoff spot), it was like a sigh of relief that we were in. We didn’t have much to play for and as a team I didn’t like how we played but nobody got hurt so we’re healthy which is a positive,” Bechard said. “We’ve got nothing to lose. We’re not supposed to beat Mississippi. We’re underdogs so the pressure’s not on us, which is nice. As a whole, we’ve underachieved the whole year for whatever reason and you know what, it’s a new day and a new season. We’re lucky enough to get a second chance.” Much like the Surge, Columbus’ leadership came from a mix of veterans and new faces. Tim Green (22-32-54) was the leading scorer on the roster.Teammate Orrin Hergott (13-14-27) showed flashes of his speed game late in the year. Second-year Snake Sam Bowles (22-25-47) got hot in the back half of the season as well. Probably the two most consistent players were rookies Levi Lind (19-33-52) and Jesse Cole (28-23-51) who were weapons all season long. The defensive corps were led by Kyle Lundale (8-29-37), Tyler Johnson (5-16-21) and Will Barlow (0-12-12). Tim Hockley (2-6-8), whosigned on during the off-season, brought the grit he had in Huntsville with him to add to the toughness on defense. Long a staple of Columbus’ game, the goaltending had its ups and downs. Ian Vigier (15-15-5, 3.02 goals against) and Chad Rycroft (7-11-2, 4.28 goals against) were outstanding on some nights and not on others. If they can get into their “zones” , either one can steal a game or two on an evening where the offense sputters. Bechard said one of the keys for the Cottonmouths to succeed against the Surge is for the entire team to step up its play. He also said that being disciplined and not giving Mississippi’s vaunted power play a lot of chances will keep his team in games where they only have to “score one more goal” than the Surge to win. “We need to stay out of the penalty box. We need to combine our physical play with being disciplined and staying out of the penalty box,” he said. “We need to take the body. We need to slow them down in the neutral zone and how you do that is by clogging up the middle, keeping a good gap. At the same time, we need to be physical and take them off the puck. It’s that fine line of physical play and not being too physical and sitting in the penalty box. We need to be in the right positions and use our bodies as opposed to using our sticks to slow guys down.” Editor’s prediction: Because of building commitments, the series is using a 1-2-2 format with Mississippi hosting Games 1, 4 and 5. Columbus needs to take Game 1 in order to have a realistic shot. If Zaniboni and Vigier (or Rycroft) are hot in net, goals could be at a premium which would give Mississippi an edge. Still it is tough to ignore the Surge’s potent power play. Having won the last meeting in Columbus, Mississippi knows it can beat the Cottonmouths away from home. Look for Mississippi to take the series in four games – but don’t be surprised if it goes to five. Contact the author at don.money@prohockeynews.com