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Snakes Hit The Road This Week; One Point Behind Second

March 12, 2012 - SPHL (SPHL)
Columbus Cottonmouths News Release


COLUMBUS, Ga. - The Columbus Cottonmouths split a pair of home games this past weekend, falling to the Mississippi RiverKings on Friday night but rebounding to defeat the league-leading Augusta RiverHawks on Saturday. The Snakes will enter a stretch this week of five consecutive games away from Columbus prior to their final home game on March 24 against Augusta. This week, the Cottonmouths face the teams with the three best records over the past ten games besides themselves. The Snakes first visit Pensacola for a Tuesday night matchup before two other games away from home this weekend. Columbus travels to Biloxi to face the Mississippi Surge on Friday night before renewing the Battle of Georgia with the Augusta RiverHawks on Saturday night at the James Brown Arena. All games will be broadcast on America One Networks with both a video and audio feed, with a nominal fee for each game. Fans can head to Locos Grill and Pub for every away game and watch the game at no cost. A free audio-only webcast of the games is also available. Details can be found at www.cottonmouths.com. In addition, road games are now broadcast locally in the Columbus area on 107.7 FM.

CURRENT RECORDS AND STATS

Last Week: 1-1-0

Record: 30-15-5, 65 pts (3rd, SPHL)

163 GF, 142 GA

18.4% PP (3rd, SPHL); 87.2% PK (2nd, SPHL)

LAST WEEK'S TRANSACTIONS

3/7 - F Sam Bowles activated from injured reserve

3/7 - F Brett Hammond waived

SPHL STANDINGS

TEAM GP W L OTL PTS WPCT HOME ROAD L-TEN STREAK MAX HI LO

yAugusta 51 34 11 6 74 .725 21-2-3 13-9-3 6-2-2 0-1-0 84 1 4

xKnoxville 50 30 14 6 66 .660 18-4-2 12-10-4 5-3-2 1-0-0 78 1 5

xColumbus 50 30 15 5 65 .650 17-8-2 13-7-3 7-3-0 1-0-0 77 1 5

xPensacola 50 27 19 4 58 .580 14-9-1 13-10-3 7-2-1 0-1-0 70 2 7

xMississippi Surge 51 27 21 3 57 .559 14-8-2 13-13-1 6-4-0 2-0-0 67 2 7

xLouisiana 52 23 25 4 50 .481 13-11-2 10-14-2 2-8-0 1-0-0 58 4 8

xMississippi RKings 50 22 25 3 47 .470 15-11-1 7-14-2 5-5-0 0-1-0 59 4 8

xHuntsville 52 20 27 5 45 .433 12-12-2 8-15-3 2-7-1 0-1-0 53 6 8

Fayetteville 52 16 31 5 37 .356 8-15-2 8-16-3 4-6-0 1-0-0 45 9 9

x - clinched playoff berth; y - clinched home ice in first playoff round; MAX - maximum number of points possible; HI - highest playoff seed possible; LO - lowest playoff seed possible

UPCOMING GAMES AND PROMOTIONS

Tuesday, March 13 - Columbus at Pensacola, 8:05 PM EDT (Season Series vs. PEN: 3-4-0)

The Snakes look to even up their season series against Pensacola with the final game of the regular season against the Ice Flyers in Florida on Tuesday night. The Snakes defeated the Ice Flyers for the first time this season in Pensacola in the last meeting between the two teams on February 24. The Ice Flyers currently sit seven points behind Columbus in fourth place in the SPHL standings; the hotter battle for Pensacola is that of the fourth and final home ice playoff position in the league, as they are currently just one point ahead of the Mississippi Surge for fourth place, although they do have a game in hand on the Surge. Pensacola is the hottest team in the league in the last 10 games, going 7-2-1 during that stretch. The Ice Flyers have had three of the last four SPHL Players of the Week, with goaltender Jesse Kallechy winning the award last week after his first professional shutout at Huntsville on March 3 and forward Chris Wilson claiming the honor two of the previous three weeks and also being named the league's Player of the Month for February. Wilson tied the league record with a five-goal outburst on February 2 at Fayetteville and followed that up with a four-goal effort on February 18 in Biloxi against the Mississippi Surge.

Friday, March 16 - Columbus at Mississippi Surge, 8:05 PM EDT (Season Series vs. MSS: 2-3-1)

As with Pensacola on Tuesday night, the Cottonmouths will be looking to even up the season series as they face the Mississippi Surge for the final time in the regular season on Friday night in Biloxi. The Snakes have split a pair of games so far at the Mississippi Coast Coliseum this season, winning for the first time ever on the road against the Surge on December 17 but dropping a decision to them on February 2. Columbus will also catch the Surge on a hot streak as they are winners of six of their last seven games; Mississippi will face Augusta at home on Tuesday night prior to Friday's matchup against the Snakes.

Saturday, March 17 - Columbus at Augusta, 7:35 PM EDT (Season Series vs. AUG: 4-2-1)

The Snakes visit the James Brown Arena in Augusta on Saturday night for their seemingly weekly matchup against the first-place RiverHawks. Augusta enters the week with an eight-point lead over second place Knoxville in the race for the regular season title, though both the Ice Bears and the third-place Snakes, who are nine points back, have a game in hand on Augusta. The two teams will face each other once more in the final regular season game for both teams at the Snake Pit on March 24.

COTTONMOUTHS WEEK IN REVIEW

Friday, March 9 - Mississippi RiverKings 6 at Columbus 3 (Attendance: 2,479)

The Mississippi RiverKings still continued their dominance over the Cottonmouths Friday night with a 6-3 win at the Snake Pit. Daniel Amesbury scored for Columbus while Jordan Braid and Peter MacDougall added power play markers in the contest. Andrew Loewen finished with 30 saves on 36 shots in goal for the Snakes while the RiverKings' Scott Darling turned away 26 of 29 shots on goal for the win in net for Mississippi. The RiverKings took full advantage of the power play as they scored four times in ten chances while Columbus was 2 for 7 with the man advantage.

Saturday, March 10 - Augusta 1 at Columbus 3 (Attendance: 2,673)

The Cottonmouths got the upper hand on the first-place Augusta RiverHawks Saturday night with a 3-1 win. Jordan Braid and Levi Lind notched goals for Columbus with Sam Bowles tapping in an empty-netter in the game's final three seconds. Ian Vigier turned away all but one of the 35 Augusta shots on goal he faced, while the RiverHawks' Peter Skoggard had 20 saves on 22 shots on goal. In stark contrast to the game the night before for Columbus, power plays were few and far between, and neither team scored on the man advantage; Augusta had three chances on the PP while the Snakes had two.

THREE STARS OF THE WEEK

1. F Jordan Braid - Braid scored once on Friday night and scored the game-winning goal and added an assist on Saturday night.

2. G Ian Vigier - Vigier's 34-save effort helped the Snakes to a big win over Augusta on Saturday.

3. F Levi Lind - Lind had a goal and an assist in Saturday night's win over Augusta.



SPHL Stories from March 12, 2012


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