SPHL SPHL

Parity In Play for SPHL Six Clubs Sit at .500 or Better

Published on November 10, 2006 under SPHL (SPHL) News Release


Richmond, VA-After two weeks of play it looks like the SPHL's coaches are going to need a lot of ant-acid this season as nothing looks like it will be determined early on. Six of the league's eight clubs have won as many games as they have lost thus far and the other two clubs are just one good weekend away from first place.

While the defending champion Knoxville Ice Bears and the expansion Richmond Renegades are the early class of the league, each of those clubs have been handed embarrassing defeats. Meanwhile the bottom two clubs, the Pee Dee Cyclones and the Jacksonville Barracudas, have each won games in an impressive fash-ion.

During the league's first two years, it was quite easy to identify the cream of the crop in the SPHL. How-ever this year, it appears that nothing in the league is certain-except uncertainty itself.

Huntsville Draws More than a Handful- Huntsville Havoc fans, with no doubt a few Columbus Cotton-mouths fans mixed in, piled into the Von Braun Center for opening night on November 4th. A 2006-07 sea-son-high attendance of 6,509 witnessed Columbus win, 4-2, over the Havoc.

Monkman Explodes, Swider's "Six Pack"- Perhaps smarting from his club's 4-2 loss at home, Hunts-ville's Bill Monkman took matters into his own hands on Sunday afternoon. With the second period nearly two-thirds gone and the Cottonmouths enjoying a 2-1 lead, the 28-year old from Ontario knotted the game up with his second of the afternoon. While many would have called it a day, Monkman went on to tie a Huntsville club record with two more goals (finishing with four in the game) in the third period to pace his club to a 6-2 victory.

The SPHL witnessed yet another outstanding effort by Knoxville's Kevin Swider as the two-time defending scoring champion went crazy for six points against the Fayetteville FireAntz. Unfortunately for Swider it was a bittersweet effort as the 'Antz demolished the Ice Bears by an 11-6 count.

They Said It

"I made it clear last night that I was tired (of the team's inconsistent play) and it wasn't going to happen like this all year. Richmond came in here 3-0 and is one of, if not the, hardest working team in the league. We outworked them and outplayed them. It was nice to see."

Florida Head Coach Tommy Stewart to Don Money of www.floridaseals.com

"We hadn't lost a game before that and we turn around play like that. I wouldn't care if we tried but we never tried at all."

Richmond coach John Brophy said to Money after the same game.

Columbus finished back were they started-at .500 after this week's games against the Huntsville Havoc. The week started out promising when four different players (Lorne Misita, Orrin Hergott, Ryan Rutz and Craig Stahl) scored and teamed up with netminder Chad Rycroft (33 saves) for a 4-2 win in Huntsville. Things would not be as good the next day, as after a four-hour bus drive, the 'Snakes failed to defend their home ice in a 6-2 setback to the same Havoc club they had defeated the night before. The game began promisingly enough as Tim Green and Rutz provided the material for a 2-1 lead, but Rycroft faded under the weight of 47 shots and 15 power plays.

Josh Tataryn's hat trick and two assists led the FireAntz to an 11-6 walloping of the de-fending champion Knoxville Ice Bears in front of 3,571 on Friday night. Fayetteville's depth was highlighted by the fact eight other players scored for the club in the contest. Josh Robertson and Patrick Levesque each added three assists to their goals to finish with four-point evenings. The club's high was muted on Saturday night after they suf-fered a 4-3 overtime loss to the Pee Dee Cyclones. Tim Velemirovich's goal with just eight seconds remaining in regulation allowed the FireAntz to knot the score at three aside after starting the final frame two goals down. However, the exhilaration was quickly shattered when the Cyclones scored just 35 seconds into overtime. Despite the setback the club sits in third place in the standings and leads the SPHL in scoring with 24 goals. The club signed defender Marcus Reszka to a five-game tryout contract.

Friday night is not alright for the Seals who have lost both of their home games on that night this season. Last week the club lost the season's opener to Huntsville and this week the club dropped a 6-4 match to the Jacksonville Barracudas. A different story developed on Saturday nights is a different story as the team has scored seven times during each weekend closer. This week's victims? The Richmond Renegades. Florida's win over the expansion club meant that each team in the SPHL had tasted defeat. Justin Keller's incredible play for the Seals continued on Saturday night as he picked up two goals and three assists to key the victory. With the team already down a man due to Chris Bain's suspension, the Seals defeated Richmond with only 14 ska t-ers due to the fact Craig Miller missed the game with an ankle injury. Miller, who blasted the Huntsville Havoc for five points in a game last week, hopes to play this weekend. Florida is halfway through a stretch where they play their first eight games at home. Rookie forward Cedric Bernier joined the team and fought twice against Richmond. Netminder Matt Balsar is pushing Terry Denike for the starting role. Ba l-sar replaced the reigning SPHL Goaltender of the Year after Denike gave up three goals in the first period against Jacksonville. Balsar then received the start against Richmond.

A busy week on the transaction front amounted to a split of a home-and-home series against the Columbus Cottonmouths. Huntsville got lucky when the Youngstown Steel-hounds (CHL) decided they could do without Dan Buccella and the SPHL unit signed the hard-working, hard-hitting forward. Other additions to the roster included defender Jason deGuehery, and forwards Trevor Karasiewicz and Chris Nichols. Karasiewicz and deGuehery had been with the club since training camp, but were recovering from injuries during the first week of SPHL play, while Nichols was a late cut from the Ari-zona Sundogs (CHL). Sunday afternoon's 6-2 win over Columbus was keyed by five unanswered goals and four goals during the course of the contest from Bill Monkman. Defender Jesse Baraniuk also enjoyed a fine contest as he registered a goal and an assist during the match. Netminder Matt Carmichael was in goal for both of the tilts and has played in all four of the club's games to date.

A strong three-goal first period against Terry Denike and the Florida Seals forced the defending SPHL Goaltender of the Year out of the game and propelled the Ba r-racudas to their first victory of the 2006-07 campaign. Florida outscored Jackson-ville 4-3 over the last two periods during the Friday night tilt, but it was too little and too late. Coach Rick Allain promised changes after last week's losses, which came in the form of forwards Andrew Shennan and Colby Gilbert and defender Cory Graboski. Defenseman Matt Withers was waived to make room for the trio and sev-eral players have been rotated in and out of the lineup to accommodate the newcom-ers. A solid crowd of 3,409 attended the Barracudas' home opener as Ryan Webb scored twice in the third period, including the game-tying goal with just 28 seconds left to force the Knoxville Ice Bears into overtime. However, the defending champi-ons mustered the winner just nine seconds into the extra frame to deny the Barracu-das their second consecutive win.

Mike Tuomi (1-4-5) and Kevin Swider (3-3-6) would have had a night to remember fondly against Fayetteville had the Ice Bears not been soundly defeated by an 11-6 count. Tuomi had to ride to the rescue the next night against Jacksonville when his overtime goal just nine seconds into the extra frame kept the club from losing a game it led 3-1 late in the third period. With Terry Dunbar suspended for the Fayetteville game, the Ice Bears turned to Ervins Mustukovs in goal and the rookie netminder was strafed for 11 goals on just 36 shots. Tuomi started the game's scoring, but the FireAntz scored the next six goals to blow the game wide open. While losing as badly as they did to the FireAntz is difficult, the Ice Bears nearly had a much tougher defeat to swallow in Flor-ida against the Barracudas the next night. Leading 3-1 with over 15 minutes expired in the final period, the club allowed Jacksonville to tie the game. Fortunately Tuomi's sec-ond goal of the game gave Knoxville the win. For his efforts Tuomi was named the league's Player of the Week for the first two weeks of the season.

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