COLUMBUS, GA – There was one team in the SPHL President’s Cup playoff semifinals that wore the title of Cinderella. Friday night, midnight struck for the team that slew the giant in the first round.
Paced by the near-perfect play of Ian Vigier in net and the two-goal, three-point performance of forward Greg Beller, the Columbus Cottonmouths made sure they would not be the victim of another upset as they dispatched the Huntsville Havoc 6-1 in game two of their best-of-three series at the Columbus Civic Center. The second consecutive series sweep now sends the Cottonmouths to the finals for the first time since the 2005 playoff year when the team won the very first President’s Cup.
“The guys were really focused, working hard, working as a team,” Columbus Head Coach Jerome Bechard said. “It doesn’t matter who’s doing what, it doesn’t matter who had (the) recognition. I’ve watched this team grow over and take steps the last couple of months and we have two more steps to go.”
Knowing full well that the Havoc had come from behind to beat top seed Augusta, Columbus was not about to fall into the same trap. The Cottonmouths threw everything they had at Huntsville goalie Mark Sibbald, trying to get him and his teammates to crack. Early on it looked like Sibbald was on his game, keeping Columbus off the scoreboard with several big saves.
The Cottonmouths opened the scoring midway through the first period. Playing with their second power play of the game, Beller picked up his third goal of the post-season with the lone assist going to Levi Lind. Exactly one minute later, John Sullivan picked up his third goal of the playoffs to double the lead.
Down the other end of the ice, Vigier was having an easy go of things. He faced just one Havoc shot in the first 13 minutes of the period. Huntsville did pick up four more shots during the final 6:33 of the stanza but Vigier, who had blanked the Havoc in game one, stopped every one of them to help his team take a 2-0 lead into the first intermission.
Columbus looked poised to put the kill shot into its opponent and looked like it had done so when Orrin Hergott, the lone remaining member from the 2004-2005 championship squad, beat Sibbald 47 into the second period. Huntsville’s Mike MacDonald finally solved Vigier at the 3:24 mark of the period, breaking the Cottonmouths netminder’s shutout streak at 107 minutes and 28 seconds. His tally stemmed the tide momentarily as three minutes later Sam Bowles notched a power play goal for the Cottonmouths to reestablish the three-goal margin. When rookie James Durham knocked in a rebound for his first professional goal at the 10:15 mark, the Columbus lead was 5-1.
“I thought this was a pretty good game (for us),” Hergott said. “We played well in Huntsville. We knew we would have to come out here and play well (tonight). They were playing for their lives and it came out well for us.”
Beller, who after Friday’s game is tied with Knoxville’s Kevin Swider for the league lead in post-season scoring, picked up his second of the game and fourth of the playoffs 27 seconds into the final period to further deflate the Havoc. From there it was up to the defense and Vigier to keep Huntsville from getting back into the game. The visitors recorded four of their seven final stanza shots in the closing minutes but the Notre Dame-de-Lourdes, Manitoba born Vigier turned aside all of them to finish off the game and the Havoc’s hopes for another surprising comeback.
Huntsville head coach Glenn Detulleo, who took over for former coach Randy Murphy late in the season, said that his post-game speech to his players was short and simple.
“There’s not much I’m going to say to make them feel good after a loss like that. I told them I was proud about the way we turned the season around about a month ago,” he said. “Nobody probably expected us to be where we are right now. We just ran into a team that’s playing great. Top to bottom, they’re playing real well. I think it’s more about how well they played, not how bad we played.”
Veteran forward Dennis Sicard, who returned to Huntsville not too long before Murphy resigned, gave a lot of credit to his former teammate Detulleo for turning the Havoc around as well as Columbus for how they played in the series.
“Glenn was a great player and is a great coach. He knew how to get the best out of the guys. When a coach is able to do that, the team becomes closer and works as a unit. We respected him as a player and we worked hard for him,” Sicard said. “They (Columbus) took the wind out of our sails and we just kind of sat back and watched the show. The team that was on the streak kept rolling and they got the win.”
Game Notes: Through the first four playoff games covering two series, Vigier has allowed just five goals on 116 shots for a save percentage of .957 to go along with a 1.20 goals against average…Bowles’ goal Friday night was his fifth of the playoffs, tops in the SPHL so far…Columbus, which will have home ice advantage for the finals as the highest remaining seed, will play the winner of the Knoxville – Pensacola series. It is anticipated that the finals will begin at the Columbus Civic Center next Thursday.
Contact the author at lee.marion@prohockeynews.com
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