COLUMBUS, GA – Everyone expected game one of the SPHL President’s Cup finals to be a spectacular goaltenders battle between Pensacola’s Steve Christie and Columbus’ Ian Vigier. The duel did occur – with a few goals and plenty of action thrown in.
Thanks to a two-goal performance from veteran Orrin Hergott and a clutch score by Sam Bowles, Vigier won the battle as the Cottonmouths edged the Ice Flyers 3-2 Thursday night at the Columbus Civic Center. Columbus now leads the best-of-three series one game to none and can win its second SPHL title with a victory Saturday night in Pensacola. If the Ice Flyers win, the teams will return to Columbus for a winner-take-all game three Sunday afternoon.
“They’re both very good goaltenders. Stevie stopped some very good chances,” Ice Flyers captain Dan Buccella said. “Vigier played huge for them. It’s going to be a battle of the goaltenders the next two games.”
Two bus loads of Pensacola fans made the trip north to join more than 2,000 Columbus rooters for the game that was billed as a classic about to happen. With both Christie and Vigier allowing less than one-and-a-half goals per game in the playoffs, many people thought it could be a 1-0 or a 2-1 final. What they didn’t expect was that it would take less than four minutes of play for a goal to be scored.
As it turned out it was Christie, who had two shutouts in his last three games, who was the first netminder to blink. Three minutes in, some digging along the boards in the Columbus end resulted with the puck on the stick of Greg Beller. Beller sent it ahead to Hergott and joined in the rush, crossing lanes with his teammate. As Hergott sped into the Pensacola end, he rifled a shot from the face-off circle that caught the iron behind Christie and fell into the net.
At the other end of the ice, Buccella had an opportunity of his own when a rebound popped out to him in front of Vigier. Unfortunately for him, the puck wouldn’t stay still and the shot went wide.
“The puck was spinning and bobbling there. I couldn’t get all of it,” he said. “Unfortunately it went wide. I knew I had to make that one up. It happens like that sometimes.”
Vigier was standing on his head on his head to keep Pensacola off the scoreboard. Matthew Robertson and Chris Wilson both had point blank chances that Vigier knocked away. By the end of the first period, Pensacola had out-shot Columbus 9-4 but trailed by one.
Robertson would get revenge on Vigier a little over a minute into the second when he got the puck from Buccella beside the net and somehow managed to stuff it between Vigier’s pad and the post. The Ice Flyers controlled the momentum for the next few minutes, keeping the Columbus netminder busy. The Cottonmouths had a golden opportunity during a penalty kill when Levi Lind got loose for a shot that was redirected but Christie recovered to make the save.
Just over a minute into the final period, Hergott, the lone remaining player from Columbus’ 2005 SPHL championship team, worked himself into a similar spot as he did in the opening stanza and once again wired a shot to the top corner past Christie.
“He’s just been carrying us all year,” Vigier said of Hergott after the game. “He wants to win it just as much as us. You want to look at a veteran guy like that when you’re in a championship game.”
Just short of two minutes later, the Ice Flyers tied the game but not without a little controversy. With Columbus controlling the puck in the Pensacola end, Ryan Salvis got the puck and sent it out of the zone to Donnie Harris who in turn fed Buccella. Using a defenseman as a screen, Buccella whipped a shot that beat Vigier to tie the game. Columbus argued that Salvis had used a hand pass to get the puck into the neutral zone to Harris, which would have negated the scoring play. The two referees discussed the play and ruled that the goal would stand.
“Salvis picked up a stick and chipped it (forward) with his stick. It wasn‘t a hand pass,” Buccella said. “It happened so fast (that) some people didn’t see what happened. It was definitely a chip.”
Pensacola Head Coach Todd Gordon agreed with his captain.
“It’s hard to say. I thought you could make a hand pass from the defensive zone when you come from the same zone,” Gordon said. “It was the right call.”
Over on the Cottonmouths bench, Head Coach Jerome Bechard saw the play differently.
“The officials saw that he advanced the puck with a stick. We saw it another way,” Bechard said. “We saw that it was a hand pass. He didn’t have his stick in his hands. It’s just one of those things.”
Columbus wasted no time getting back into the lead. A little over a minute after Buccella scored, Andrew Krelove set up Bowles who knocked the puck into the net for his team-leading sixth post-season goal. Bowles’ tally had Gordon hot and bothered as he argued that it should not have counted.
“Their last goal could have been (called) a high stick,” Gordon said.
The final sixteen minutes were a white-knuckle ride for the teams and the fans. The play became fast and furious with shots coming from everywhere. Both Christie (24 saves) and Vigier (31 saves) had to be on their game. The Ice Flyers had one final push in the final minute but Vigier denied chances by Ryan Hohl and Jordan Chong to seal the victory.
Game Notes: Attendance for the game was announced as 2,245…With his assist on Hergott’s first goal, Beller took over the league lead in playoff scoring with his ninth point…Right before the game, the SPHL decided to use back-up game officials Jason Schultz and Jared Gregor as goal judges…The Ice Flyers announced that they will host a “SPHL Finals Fan Fest” prior to Saturday’s game two at the Pensacola Civic Center. The Fan Fest, which is being co-presented by SMG, the PCC’s operating team, will begin at 4 p.m. and feature food, games and other activities.
Contact the author at lee.marion@prohockeynews.com
