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Cottonmouths Week in Review

April 2, 2012 - SPHL (SPHL)
Columbus Cottonmouths News Release


COLUMBUS, Ga. - The Columbus Cottonmouths dispatched the Louisiana IceGators in SPHL first round playoff action last week, defeating the `Gators in the Cajundome on Tuesday night and beating them in overtime at the Snake Pit on Thursday. In other SPHL playoff action, the eighth-seeded Huntsville Havoc pulled off one of the biggest playoff upsets in SPHL history, knocking out the regular season champion Augusta RiverHawks in three games. By virtue of the RiverHawks' elimination, Columbus is now the top remaining seed and will have home ice advantage for the remainder of the playoffs. However, due to building availability at the Havoc's home Propst Arena, Huntsville will host Game 1 of their series against the Snakes on Wednesday night, with Game 2 Friday in Columbus and a Game 3, if necessary, on Saturday at the Snake Pit. The winner of the Columbus-Huntsville series will face the winner of the Knoxville-Pensacola semifinal series in the President's Cup Finals, which will be played next week. All games will be broadcast on America One Networks with both a video and audio feed, with a nominal fee for each game. A free audio-only webcast of the games is also available. Details can be found at www.cottonmouths.com. In addition, road games are now broadcast locally in the Columbus area on 107.7 FM.

LAST WEEK'S TRANSACTIONS

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SPHL PLAYOFF PREVIEW

Knoxville (3) vs. Pensacola (4) - KNX won season series 2-1-1

Game 1: Thu, 7:35 PM EDT @ KNX; Game 2: Sat, 8:05 PM EDT @ PEN; Game 3 (if needed): Sun, 5 PM EDT @ KNX

The Knoxville Ice Bears face the Pensacola Ice Flyers at the other end of the SPHL playoff bracket to determine the opponent for the Columbus-Huntsville series winner in the President's Cup Finals. Knoxville defeated the Mississippi RiverKings in three games while Pensacola swept the Mississippi Surge two games to none in first-round action. The two teams only faced each other four times in the regular season, with two of those coming in a back-to-back series in Pensacola on November 4 and 5. The Ice Flyers only visited Knoxville once in the regular season, getting shut out by the Ice Bears 2-0 on March 16. Both teams won two games in the season series but Knoxville won the season series by virtue of one of their losses coming in overtime. Kevin Swider's four goals and four assists led all Ice Bears against Pensacola in scoring, while the Ice Flyers' Chris Wilson (4G, 1A) and Jordan Chong (1G, 4A) were tied for the team lead with five points against Knoxville in the regular season. Pensacola goaltender Jesse Kallechy has the unique perspective of facing the Ice Flyers once as a member of the Ice Bears (losing in OT) and facing Knoxville in the Pensacola net once (losing in regulation), while Steve Christie picked up the win in his lone appearance in net for Pensacola against the Ice Bears. Kyle Rank picked up one of his two shutouts on the season in his only game in net for the Ice Bears against Pensacola.

Columbus (2) vs. Huntsville (8) - COL won season series 6-0-0

Game 1: Wed, 8:35 PM EDT @ HSV; Game 2: Fri, 7:30 PM EDT @ COL; Game 3 (if nec.): Sat, 7:30 PM EDT @ COL

The Cottonmouths face the upstart Huntsville Havoc in the SPHL semifinals. The Snakes swept the Havoc in the season series, winning all six matchups between the two teams; however, Augusta also dominated Huntsville in the regular season with a 5-1-1 record against the Havoc before falling to them in three games in the first round. Defenseman Bret Tyler led the way in scoring for Columbus against the Havoc with two goals and seven assists, with Greg Beller adding four goals and three assists and Jordan Braid, Orrin Hergott, and Derek Pallardy with identical two goal, four assist outputs against Huntsville on the season. Mike MacDonald's five-point effort (2G, 3A) led the way for the Havoc against the Snakes. Andrew Loewen was the goaltender of record for the Snakes in five of the six games between the two teams, while Mark Sibbald faced the Snakes three times, only losing in regulation once as he was 0-1-2 against Columbus.

COTTONMOUTHS WEEK IN REVIEW

Tuesday, March 27 - Columbus 4 at Louisiana 2 (Attendance: 1,002)

The Cottonmouths took Game 1 of the best-of-three series against Louisiana by virtue of a 4-2 win at the Cajundome in Lafayette on Tuesday night. The turning point in the game came early in the second period when Peter MacDougall and Orrin Hergott both scored for Columbus just 37 seconds apart. Sam Bowles and Greg Beller notched the other markers for the Cottonmouths. Ian Vigier turned away 28 of 30 IceGator shots on goal while Jeff Rose had 19 saves on 23 shots in net for Louisiana. Both teams finished the game 0 for 2 on the power play.

Thursday, March 29 - Louisiana 2 at Columbus 3 (OT) (Attendance: 1,508)

Columbus cruised to a 2-0 lead after two periods, but a quick pair of Louisiana goals in a 2:02 span pushed the game to overtime. Sam Bowles provided the heroics with the game-winning goal 9:23 into the extra session, giving the Snakes the series-clinching win over the IceGators. John Sullivan notched both goals for Columbus in regulation while Greg Beller assisted on all three goals in the game. Ian Vigier turned away 38 of 40 shots on goal in net for the Cottonmouths while Louisiana's Jeff Rose made 29 saves on 32 shots on goal. As in Tuesday's game, both teams were scoreless on the power play and had an identical number of chances as they were both 0 for 4 with the man advantage.

THREE STARS OF THE WEEK

1. F Greg Beller - Beller scored an insurance goal on Tuesday night in Lafayette and assisted on every Snakes goal in Thursday night's overtime victory.

2. F Sam Bowles - Bowles bookended the Snakes' scoring in the Louisiana series, scoring the first goal of Game 1 on Tuesday night and scoring the overtime series-winning goal in Game 2 on Thursday.

3. F John Sullivan - Sullivan provided all the offense for the Snakes in regulation on Thursday night with two goals.

SPHL ACCOLADES

The Cottonmouths also congratulate the following Snakes who received postseason notoriety from the league:

SPHL All-Rookie Team: F Greg Beller, D Andrew Krelove

All-SPHL Second Team: D Bret Tyler

All-SPHL First Team: G Ian Vigier

SPHL Goaltender of the Year: G Ian Vigier

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