KNOXVILLE, TN -- The Mississippi Surge fell to the Knoxville Ice Bears in their first visit to the James White Civic Coliseum by the score of 3-1 on Thursday evening.Mississippi got on the board early when Matt Zultek fed Chris Greene along the goal line, and Greene was able to deke Knoxville goaltender Dan Earles to the ice and deposited the puck in the net at 1:23 of the first period.
Knoxville's Kevin Swider, a five-time SPHL scoring champion, got the Ice Bears on the board with a power-play goal at 4:31 of the second when he hammered home a pass from BJ Pelkey. Just over three minutes later, as a matching minors to Mississippi's Steve Koich and Knoxville's David Segal expired, Segal caught a home-run pass and broke in alone on Mississippi netminder Ryan Senft and was awarded a penalty shot after Koich hauled him down. Segal converted on his opportunity, beating Senft through the legs at 7:34 of the second period for a 2-1 Mississippi lead. The Ice Bears extended their lead to 3-1 when Senft misplayed a dump-in from Knoxville's Mark Van Vliet into his own net at 11:47 of the second frame.
Mississippi threatened in the last minute of the game, getting a power play when Frank Furdero was whistled for tripping at 18:55 and pulling Senft for an extra attacker, but the effort went for naught as Mississippi couldn't find the back of the net.
Senft made 26 saves to earn a loss, and Mississippi was 0-for-5 on the power play.
Single-game tickets for the 2009-10 season are now on sale. The Surge's next home game is Thursday, November 12 against the Fayetteville FireAntz at 7:30 p.m. Every Thursday this season is Thirsty Thursday, featuring $2 beers until the end of the first intermission! Get your tickets by calling (228) 287-PUCK!
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