Mundinger, Ice Bears Reward Sellout Crowd with 2-0 Shutout
SPHL Knoxville Ice Bears

Mundinger, Ice Bears Reward Sellout Crowd with 2-0 Shutout

Published on January 16, 2026 under SPHL (SPHL)
Knoxville Ice Bears News Release


Ryan Kuzmich broke a scoreless tie with just under seven minutes to go in the game, Stephen Mundinger stopped all 28 shots he faced and the Knoxville Ice Bears shutout the Huntsville Havoc 2-0 in front of a sold-out crowd at the Knoxville Civic Coliseum Friday night.

Brayden Stannard pickpocketed Kevin Weaver-Vitale in the Huntsville zone and headed for the crease with the puck. The scramble saw the puck come free out in front of the crease where Kuzmich knocked it past Dysen Skinner at 13:06.

Mundinger was tested early, but kept the Havoc scoreless through the first 20 minutes. He stopped Cole Reginato on a breakaway a little more than one minute into the game and then stopped Josh Kestner from in front and turned aside Matt Allen's rebound chance moments later. He blocked Reginato's slot chance with his left pad and held onto Jaxon Camp's wrist shot from the right circle.

As the teams battled through the second period, Knoxville nearly took the lead on Jared Westcott's look from the slot and his ensuing follow-up from behind the net that Skinner managed to sit on top of. Dawson McKinney's snap shot from the right circle went over the crossbar and Kuzmich had one short-range look stopped by Skinner while another hit a Huntsville player in front.

Mundinger denied Huntsville's best shot on goal of the second with a pad save of Allen's point-blank chance off the right side of the crease to keep the game scoreless through 40 minutes.

After Mundinger made a couple of key saves off the perimeter with Huntsville sending out the extra attacker late-stopping Kestner's wrist shot from the left circle and fighting off two chances from the blue line by Weaver-Vitale, Jarret Kup scored on the empty net with 23 seconds remaining to seal the game for Knoxville.

Skinner made 36 saves for Huntsville.

The back-end of the home-and-home will be Saturday as the two teams head to Huntsville.

Check out the Knoxville Ice Bears Statistics

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SPHL Stories from January 16, 2026


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