Streaks Tighten Up SPHL Standings

December 26, 2006 - SPHL (SPHL) News Release

The Columbus Cottonmouths may be the hottest team in the SPHL and they have won eight of their last 10 games. However, because of the play of the two clubs above them (Huntsville and Richmond), the Georgians have only gained two points on those clubs in the standings over their last 10 outings rendering their blazing streak into merely a spending of 20 percent of their schedule.

Meanwhile, the defending champion Knoxville Ice Bears squandered a terrific start and went 1-6-1 before winning their last two outings to halt their slide and remain in fourth place. The Fayetteville FireAntz failed to gain traction plus find themselves suffering from the loss of starting netminder Chad Collins to the ECHL on the way to a 3-5-2 mark over their last two games.

Fayetteville's slippage allowed the Florida Seals, who won six of their last eight games, to dream of at least fifth place, if not a whole lot higher, in the league. Florida's recent success has moved the Seals into a tie with the Jacksonville Barracudas, whose recent 3-4-3 mark leaves them barely keeping their heads above water in the playoff chase. Jacksonville's nine points in nine games leaves the Pee Dee Cyclones in the race . The Cyclones have their own 3-4-3 mark over their last ten games to remain in step with the club immediately above them.

So the league struggles to find a team playing mediocre .500 hockey, the teams are grouped above either above or below the middling mark, as of late is in a position where three clubs (Huntsville, Richmond and Columbus) are in a bunch up top; while Knoxville, Fayetteville, Florida and Jacksonville gravitate towards the center. Which leaves Pee Dee, a team that needs to win some games in a hurry before they become irrelevant. That said, in this league where top teams suddenly plunge in the standings and former bottom dwellers look to get in the home ice fray, the Cyclones could put together a 10-game winning streak and no one should be completely surprised.

Missing Manny?

It had been tough sledding for the Knoxville Ice Bears, Kevin Swider and Mike Tuomi since the departure of winger Ben Manny. There was some initial success after linemate Manny left Swider, Tuomi and the club for Sweden, but the pair has since cooled dramatically. Swider had 25 points in 11 games with Manny, but just six in the nine games without him. Meanwhile, Tuomi's "splits" are 20 with the departed winger and just five points since. The scoring reduction was a big problem during a recent 1-6-1 slide for the club. While statistics are interesting tools for people to use, they can mislead at times.

"I don't think losing him (Manny) has been the reason we have been struggling," said Knoxville coach Jim Bermingham. "It has been a combination of many things. I believe we are back on track after a pretty solid weekend on the road where we were able to get four out six points."

Special Teams' Play Show Competitive Coaching

Only a Scant Few Points Separate Clubs

If you spend much time talking to a coach in any hockey league about their special teams play most of them will say two things. First of all they will tell you that unless their power play and penalty-killing units are at top speed, especially in the days of increased minor penalties due to the new rules, that their respective clubs are doomed. Many coaches will tell you they are looking to score a 100% with their special teams, a figure that is calculated by adding their power play and penalty-killing teams success rate together. For example, a team that is scoring on 20% of their power play chances and killing 80% of their shorthanded situations would have a "success rate" of 100%.

Many of those same coaches will tell you that even though circumstances may cause that success rate to fluctuate by a few points here in there, you can get a good idea of a coach's grasp of the technical aspects of special team play by calculating a club's success rate.

A check of the SPHL teams after Sunday's games shows that the SPHL coaches are very close to each other in the technical aspects of the game, based on the success rate calculation. In fact, it may be argued that each team is within a statistical dead heat when you factor in the difference in special teams talent on each club and various circumstances (such as shortened power plays, penalty-kills, etc.). The following chart will show where each of the team's rank as of December 25th.

Team Coach Power Play % Penalty-Kill % Success Rate

Knoxville Jim Bermingham 14.9 88.0 102.9

Huntsville John Gibson 16.2 86.5 102.7

Columbus Jerome Bechard 17.7 84.9 102.6

Fayetteville John Marks 20.2 79.5 99.7

Richmond John Brophy 17.6 82.0 99.6

Jacksonville Rick Allain 15.6 83.2 98.8

Pee Dee Mark Richards 19.9 76.9 96.8

Florida Tommy Stewart 15.4 80.6 96.0

They Said It

"We just didn't show up. We were awful tonight. That's all."

Pee Dee Coach Mark Richards to Don Money (www.prohockeynews.com, www.floridaseals.com) after Pee Dee's 9-4 loss to Florida.

"They've (Columbus) definitely been our nemesis. We've had a great rivalry with these guys since the '90s. We've got to go back to the drawing board on how to play them."

Huntsville Coach John Gibson to Brad Shepard of the Huntsville Times after the Havoc's 3-2 loss to the Cottonmouths, its fourth loss in six games this season.

"You can make a lot of saves, but if you let the routine ones beat you, what does it matter? There are those who have it and those who don't, and the ones that have it don't get beat by the routine shots."

Fayetteville Coach John Marks to the Fayetteville Observer's Brett Friedlander after Marks was asked about net minder Garrett Kindred's play after a 5-2 loss to Pee Dee.

"We're just starting to roll here. I expect great things here in the second half."

Florida Coach Tommy Stewart after his club won six of their last eight games to Don Money (www. prohockeynews.com, www.floridaseals.com).

TEAM NOTES

With a record of 8-2 in their last 10 games, the Cottonmouths are the hottest team in the SPHL. The run allowed the club to move into third place in the league and it owns at least one game in hand over the clubs ahead in the standings. That being said, the enthusiasm was damped a bit by a 5-1 loss to the Knoxville Ice Bears on Saturday evening. Columbus was in that game for only about 10 minutes as Knoxville took the lead midway through the first period and never looked back. Ryan Rutz, the league's second-leading goal scorer was the lone player to score in the setback. Columbus won its other two games this past week, including a win over the first place Huntsville Havoc despite only dressing 13 skaters due to injury and suspension. Craig Stahl received credit for the game winner in the tense affair when Havoc net minder Matt Carmichael misplayed the puck. The fluke goal allowed the Cottonmouths to knock off Huntsville for the fourth time in six tries despite being out shot in the contest by a 46-27 margin. Net minder Chad Rycroft was a hero for the club with 44 stops during the course of the evening. Mark Prentice (two goals), Ryan Senft (37 saves) and Orrin Hergott (1-2-3) paced the Cottonmouths to a 5-2 win over Fayetteville to kick off the week. Hergott returned to the ice after missing a game last week due to injury. The club signed veteran defender Tom Wilson to fill in for a few games. Jeff Moor has finished his suspension while Daryl has three more games remaining in his ban.

The departure of Chad Collins to the ECHL hurt the FireAntz as the club went 0-2-1 this past week. Fayetteville has turned to backup Garrett Kindred and newcomer Dennis Canfield in goal. Both goalies have played well at times, but consistency has been an issue. Collins played in two games for the ECHL's Cincinnati Cyclones and has played very well. To make matters worse, the goaltender he replaced, former NHL draft choice Dov Grumet-Morris, has torn up the AHL for the Portland Pirates and may not be returned to Cincinnati any time soon. Josh Tataryn did his best to help the club's fortunes as he scored four times during last week's games. He scored twice against Richmond, including a blazing shot while shorthanded to give the FireAntz a short-lived 2-1 lead. The FireAntz would eventually lose to Richmond in the shootout, despite firing 45 shots on goal during the course of the game. As if the club did not have enough problems with injuries and call ups, Nick Kormanyos missed the last two games due to a family matter and the team could dress only 14 skaters against Richmond. Kormanyos' absence was tempered by the return of Patrick Levesque. Levesque has scored nine points in his seven games. Rookie defenseman Dylan Row leads the SPHL in goal scoring by a defenseman with eight and is tied for the league lead in scoring by a defender with 20 points.

The busy Seals won three of four games this week, including three in a decisive manner. The week started with a 7-4 defeat of in-state rival Jacksonville, thanks to three two-goal, one assist efforts from Dan Pszenyczny, Justin Keller and Robert Sich. The club allowed the Barracudas to jump out to a 2-0 lead before scoring the game's next six goals. The Knoxville Ice Bears were next and Matt Balser led the way with 30 saves while Keller scored two more times during a 5-1 win. Tim Vitek (2-2-4) and Keller's (two goals) efforts allowed the club to bookend the week with another fine performance in a 9-4 win over Pee Dee. This game was never in question as the Seals jumped out to a 7-0 lead and cruised to victory. The team's only loss was a 4-2 setback to the Richmond Renegades. Keller moved into the league's second place in the scoring race with 33 points, and first in goal scoring with 19, thanks to his 6-2-8 performance this past week. He is joined on top of the scoring list by Sich (14-18-32) and Lawne Snider, who is tied for points by a defenseman with 20. Despite all of the offensive fireworks, Balser is quickly becoming a key player for the team. The rookie net minder has an 8-7 record. The club is only 2-6 with Terry Denike in goal.

A pair of 3-2 games leaves the Havoc in first place, but a tad less comfortably than the end of last week. The Havoc defeated Richmond in their only two match ups this season. Huntsville has had completely different success, or lack thereof, against Columbus and that continued this week despite out-shooting the Cottonmouths 46-27 on Friday night. The loss left Huntsville with a 2-4 mark against the Georgians, including its only two home ice losses this season. The week was salvaged, thanks to Tristan Senior's two goals and 29 saves from Carmichael in a 3-2 win over the visiting Jacksonville Barracudas. Senior might be the most underrated players in the league as he sits in second place in the club's scoring race behind perennial leader James Patterson. Senior, a North American rookie after two seasons spent in Holland, holds 12th place in the league in scoring with 25 points in 22 games. Defenseman Jesse Baraniuk continues to impress in Pensacola (ECHL) where he has a plus-2 in five games with the team. Carmichael, the defending SPHL MVP, makes a case to be named the SPHL Goaltender of the Year, if not the MVP again, as he sits in first place in all positive goaltending statistics.

Jacksonville's net minding position received a huge boost when Coach Rick Allain came to a contract agreement with Ryan Person. Person played quite well for Knoxville last season. While unable to lead his club to victory, Person made 32 stops in a 3-2 shootout loss to his former Ice Bears teammates in his debut, and made the same amount of saves in a 3-2 regulation loss to Huntsville. Person's addition came in the nick of time as he replaced Corey Wogtech on the roster after the latter net minder gave up six goals in a 7-4 loss to the Florida Seals. That loss came despite a fine two goal, one assist effort from Jeff Angelidis. A disputed goal by Ryan Crowther with 16 seconds remaining in the game made the Huntsville affair look closer than it was, but the club should not be ashamed by an effort where it played the first-place team to a near standstill in that club's building. The more you watch Jim Murphy, the more you will see what a complete player he is. Murphy, who has 16 points in 12 games, is one of only two full-time players on the team to not have a negative plus/minus rating and can be seen playing aggressively. Cory Graboski, the other Barracudas player with an even plus/minus rating, leads the SPHL in major penalties with 12 to his credit. Recently acquired Andre Niec left the team when he had an opportunity to return to Bloomington (UHL). Niec came to the SPHL after starting the season with the Prairie Thunder.

Coach Jim Bermingham turned to Ervins Mustukovs midway through a loss to Florida. While Mustukovs did not provide immediate satisfaction versus the Seals, his play proved the difference against Jacksonville. The Ice Bears rallied behind 36 stops by the Latvian netminder against the Barracudas to win 3-2 in a shootout. Only one player (Jason Cassells) solved Mustukovs in the shootout, which gave the Ice Bears time to acquire shootout goals from Kevin Swider and Nathan Daly. Mustukovs was not called on for any heroics in the club's next game, a 5-1 win over the streaking Columbus Cottonmouths, but his 39 saves showed he was up for anything. The club's offense finally came to life behind the team's depth players, with scores coming from Patrick Carriere (third of the season), Chris Kovalcik (third), Greg Gallagher (first professional goal), David Segal (third) and Jeff Hansen (second). Hansen also picked up a pair of helpers as he increased his points production from one to four in one evening. The win over Jacksonville allowed the club to halt a six-game losing streak. Strip the 11 goals Mustukovs gave up in his debut against Fayetteville on November 3rd from Mustukovs, and his GAVG would be 2.14, a mark that would lead the SPHL. Bermingham believes an SPHL club needs two solid netminders and plays whoever is winning, so Dunbar will get his opportunity to play.

While teammate Edan Welch's 19-point scoring streak was terminated on December 22nd, back-to-back SPHL Player of the Week Allan Sirois continues on with an 18-game streak of his own. Pee Dee had a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde type of week as it defeated the Fayetteville Fire- Antz by a 5-3 score before getting hammered 9-4 in Florida against the Seals. Chris Crombie scored twice, while Jeff Marler and Ryan Petz each had a goal and an assist against the FireAntz. But the true star of the evening, Guy St. Vincent, turned in 47 saves. The next night the goaltending fell apart behind a porous defense however, as the Seals struck for nine goals on 57 shots on goal. Sirois managed two goals to bring his league-leading point output to 40, but the effort was lost in the Seals' barrage. It has been tough sledding for Coach Mark Richards and his club, but things are not getting better as fourth-leading scorer Geoff Rollins has been out for the last four games and third-leading scorer Chris Rebernik missed the game against Fayetteville. Backup net minder Matt LeDuc has struggled to contribute. The rookie net minder is sitting at 0-3-1 with a 6.78 goals against average and was victimized for seven of the goals against Florida.

Richmond rebounded from a pair of road losses last weekend to win a pair of road tilts this weekend. The wins came despite the losses of Brett Cross and Joe Pace. Cross was tied for the team lead with 11 goals to his credit and Pace was leading the entire league in plus/minus. The team brought in Brett Riley and Kaz Takahashi to replace the two players, and Takahashi showed he might be a keeper, with a goal and two assists along with a successful shootout conversion over Fayetteville. DannyWhite scored an empty netter to seal the 4-2 win over Florida, and scored the game-tying goal against Fayetteville to force the shootout. The second-place Renegades have been buoyed by their goaltending this year as they are last in the league in shots against per game with an average of 39.86 shots against. Chrapala came up big against the Fire- Antz with 41 saves in regulation and four shootout saves in the 5-4 win. Mat Goody moved to the top of the SPHL's PIM list with 141 in just 12 games played. The hulking forward has shown to be a true heavyweight in a fight, but gains many PIM by losing his temper around the officials and receiving misconduct penalties.

The Lighter Side!

1) Four teams are averaging over 3,000 fans per game this year. Is that a SPHL record?

Hint: One team that averaged that mark last season, is not doing so this year.

2) What club holds the SPHL record for the longest regular season winning streak?

Hint: The team averaged over 3,000 fans last year.

3) What club holds the SPHL record for the longest regular season losing streak?

Hint: The club did not win a game from the start of the streak to the first game of the playoffs.

1) No, there were four teams (Fayetteville, Knoxville, Columbus and Huntsville) to do so last year. Richmond has replaced Columbus with an average over 3,000.

2) Columbus won 11 games between 12/17/05 and 1/8/06.

3) Pee Dee lost their last nine games of the 2005-06 season.

Helping and Honoring

SPHL hockey isn't all just fun and games. All of the league's team are reaching out to the community and doing what they can to help out. Check out some of these upcoming events;

- January 26 and 27 in Columbus will be the Columbus Cottonmouths' first ever Racing Weekend. Tickets to the Richard Petty Meet & Greet at the Snake Pit will be avai lable at the Columbus Cottonmouths front office for only $100. A portion of the proceeds from this "Columbus Cottonmouths Racin' Weekend" will go to benefit the Victory Junction Gang Camp, an organization founded for kids in honor of Adam Petty. This camp enriches the lives of children with serious illnesses or medical conditions by providing fun and exciting experiences in an environment that is conducive to each child's illness. To learn more about this Hole in the Wall Camp, visit victoryjunction. org.

- The Jacksonville Barracudas Hockey Club joined forces with Nemours, one of the nation's largest children's health systems, to present "Kids' Night", on Friday, December 22nd, 2006. The was accompanied by a toy drive in support of local children's charities and a raffle in support of Big Brothers Big Sisters of North Florida.

Three Stars of theWeek (in no particular order)

Ervins Mustukovs #33 Knoxville 39 saves vs. Columbus 12/23

Chad Rycoft #38 Columbus 44 saves vs. Huntsville 12/22

Guy St. Vincent #60 Pee Dee 47 saves 12/22 vs. Fayetteville

SPHL Stories from December 26, 2006

• Ice Bears get back at Cyclones - Twin City Cyclones
• Renegades coach Brophy suspended one game - Richmond Renegades
• Keller's Two Goals Not Enough As Seals Lose - Florida Seals
• Streaks Tighten Up SPHL Standings - SPHL

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.