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Road Woes Continue For Seals

December 29, 2006 - SPHL (SPHL)
Florida Seals News Release


FLORENCE, S.C. - With the bulk of the second half of their SPHL schedule away from the Silver Spurs Arena, the Florida Seals were looking to find that road warrior mentality.

For two periods Friday night, they thought they had it. Unfortunately, in the end, they didn't quite have enough.

Despite coming back three times after being down by two goals on three occasions, the Seals couldn't overcome a hat trick by Geoff Rollins as the host Pee Dee Cyclones downed Florida 5-4 in overtime at the Florence Civic Center.

With goalie Terry Denike starting in net for the first time in eleven games, Florida hoped to repeat their effort from the 9-4 victory they posted over the Cyclones a week ago. The Seals had the advantage in shots early but it was Pee Dee who scored first. Rollins did the honors, coming out of the penalty box and beating Denike for a power play goal and the lead.

The Cyclones began to assert themselves and took over play, out shooting Florida 12-2 over the second half of the first period. They were able to double the margin late in the stanza when Rollins notched his second man advantage goal of the night to give Pee Dee a 2-0 lead after one.

Florida came out aggressively in the second, piling up shot after shot on Cyclones goalie Gut St. Vincent. They finally broke through at the 7:46 mark when Billy Rochefort and Kahlil Thomas combined to set up Scott Corbett to cut the lead to 2-1. Pee Dee went back up by two when Allan Sirois netted a shorthanded goal midway through the period. The Seals didn't give in and got that goal back just over a minute later when Dan Pszenyczny set up Justin Keller for a power play goal. Florida dominated the period, holding a 25-10 shot advantage, but still trailed 3-2 going to the third.

Pee Dee thought they had given themselves some breathing room 6:25 into the final period when Sirois picked up his second goal of the night with a power play tally to boost the margin to 4-2. The Seals answered quickly as Craig Miller and Keller combined to get the puck to Rob Sich who beat St. Vincent with a man advantage goal 13 seconds after Sirois' score. Less than a minute later, Chad Haacke completed the comeback with an unassisted goal.

The teams battled through the rest of the third and into overtime. It was the first time Florida had gone to extra time and they tallied the first five shots of the five minute three-on-three session. Midway through, the Seals were hit with a penalty, causing a man advantage for the Cyclones. They capitalized on the 4-on-3 opportunity as Rollins completed his hat trick with just 44 seconds left on the clock.

For the game, Denike stopped 36 of the 41 shots he faced while his counterpart St. Vincent made 52 saves on 56 shots to post the win.

The two teams will finish the 2006 portion of their schedules with a rematch at the Florence Civic Center Saturday night. Game time is set for 7:10 p.m.

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