RiverHawks Win Game Three and Are Headed to the Finals

April 10, 2011 - SPHL (SPHL)
Augusta RiverHawks News Release


The Augusta RiverHawks are headed to the Southern Professional Hockey League Championship Finals in their inaugural season after defeating the Columbus Cottonmouths 3-2 Sunday night at the James Brown Arena. The win gave them a 2-1 best-of-three series victory, and earned them a date with the Mississippi Surge in the best-of-five President's Cup Finals beginning Tuesday in Biloxi.

It was not the RiverHawks' best effort of the season, getting outshot 47-22 by hard working, tenacious Cottonmouths squad that simply would not quit. The RiverHawks needed a stellar, bounce-back performance from goaltender Jon Olthuis and timely goals to elate the home crowd with the playoff win.

Leading the way offensively for the RiverHawks was the line of Ryan Olidis, Neil Graham, and Jim Gehring who accounted for each of the RiverHawks' three goals. Olidis got the scoring started in the first period, working a give-and-go play out of the corner and beating Cottonmouths' goaltender Ian Vigier inside the far post.

Despite a strong push from the Cottonmouths, Olidis managed to get the RiverHawks a two-goal lead, taking a feed from Gehring and beating Vigier with a backhand. The lead would be pushed to three goals by the mid-way point of the second period as all three linemates would combine in a goal that was finally put home by Neil Graham.

Facing a three-goal deficit and getting no bounces offensively in the game thus far, it would have been easy for the Cottonmouths pack it in and call it a season. They did not, and they started the comeback before the end of the second period when Peter McDougall shoveled in a rebound off of a Kyle Lundale shot to pull within two goals.

The RiverHawks played a solid first-half of the third period protecting the lead, but Cottonmouths' forward Darryl Moore was finally able to narrow the deficit to just a goal. He made a tremendous play to get himself one-on-one on Olthuis and managed to beat the RiverHawks netminder over the right shoulder for the goal.

The final six minutes of the game featured tremendously desperate action as both teams were playing for their season. The Cottonmouths fired shot after shot at the RiverHawks, but Olthuis stood tall making a number of fantastic stops to preserve the victory.

The RiverHawks now move onto the Finals, which begin Tuesday, April 12th in Biloxi, MS. Game Two will be played in Biloxi on Wednesday, April 13th. The series will then turn to Augusta and the James Brown Arena with Game Three being played Friday, April 15th. If necessary, Game Four will also be at the James Brown Arena Saturday, April 16th, with the fifth and final game returning to Biloxi. The puck will drop for games played in Augusta at 7:30pm. Fans can find out all the information on tickets at www.augustariverhawks.com or by calling 706-993-2645 or 1-877-4AUG-TIX.



SPHL Stories from April 10, 2011


The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.

OurSports Central