Ice Flyers Down Surge 4-1, Take Series Lead
March 30, 2012 - SPHL (SPHL)
Pensacola Ice Flyers News Release
The man in the gold pads was golden tonight for the Ice Flyers. Steve Christie would make some amazing saves en route to back stopping his team to a 4-1 win in game one of the Ice Flyers' first round series with the Mississippi Surge.
In the first period, the Ice Flyers came out flying high and had numerous opportunities to open the scoring but the SPHL's co-Rookie of the Year Kiefer Smiley made stop after stop to keep the game scoreless. Casey Mignone would break through with just 2:03 left in the first when he took a pass from Chris Wilson, skated in, and deked hard to put the puck behind Smiley.
Once the second began, the Ice Flyers got right back to work with Jordan Chong scoring a power play goal with Chris Wilson picking up his second assist of the night and Steve Bergin picking up the secondary assist. Mississippi would kill Steve Christie's bid and the hopes of the Ice Flyers faithful for a shutout with about 6 minutes remaining in the 3rd with Nicholas Kuqali netting the marker.
The third period saw the Ice Flyers fight hard to keep their lead with multiple outstanding penalty kills and eventually a couple more goals. Jeff Sapieha would put the Ice Flyers up 3-1 when he fired a shot on Smiley and then collected his own rebound. He would then spin around and shoot the puck five hole for an unassisted tally. With Smiley pulled, Sapieha would skate into the Surge's zone and, when his lane was blocked by a Mississippi player, passed the puck over to Tyler Soehner who shot it into the open net to give the Ice Flyers the 4-1 lead and seal the W.
Steve Christie stopped 30 of the 31 shots the Surge fired his way. Casey Mignone was named the 3rd star, Jeff Sapieha's 1 goal and 1 assist performance earned him the 2nd star, and Jordan Chong's game winning goal and +2 rating made him tonight's 1st star.
The Ice Flyers and Surge will meet tomorrow night in Biloxi for game two of this best-of-three series at 7:05 pm.
SPHL Stories from March 30, 2012
- Ice Flyers Down Surge 4-1, Take Series Lead - Pensacola Ice Flyers
- Ice Bears Victorious - Play Deciding Game Sunday - Knoxville Ice Bears
- Havoc Force Game Three with Overtime Victory Over RiverHawks - Augusta RiverHawks
- Surge drop opening game - Mississippi Surge
- Ice Bears Force Game 3 - Mississippi RiverKings
- Ice Flyers Vs. Mississippi Surge - Pensacola Ice Flyers
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