Ice Flyers Rally In Final Period Falls Short In Weekend Series Loss To Macon
By Bill Vilona, Ice Flyers Coresspondant
A weekend that began Friday for the Ice Flyers with such promise unfortunately ended with familiar frustration.
For the second straight night, the Macon Mayhem seized control of the game in the second period and Sunday held on for a 3-2 win against the Ice Flyers at the Pensacola Bay Center to claim the three-game series in three days between the teams.
“I feel bad for the guys,” said Ice Flyers coach Gary Graham. “I thought they deserved a better outcome. I felt we out-chanced them and outplayed them, but again they were opportunistic with their chances.”
The Ice Flyers pelted Macon goaltender Dysen Skinner with 43 shots on goal, outshooting the Mayhem 43-29, but after giving up three second-period goals, the Ice Flyers couldn’t get an equalizer.
“For us it has been about scoring timely goals the whole season,” Graham said. “It doesn’t matter who is the lineup, who’s not, we get great chances and we just can’t find a way to put the puck in the net. I thought their goalie made some unbelievable saves in the third (period).”
The Ice Flyers opened with this trio of games with a 3-1 win at Macon on Friday. They were tied 1-1 after the first intermission Saturday, but Macon again scored three unanswered goals and won that game 5-1. On Sunday, a chance to finish the weekend by netting a two-point gain on Macon in the standings went awry.
The Ice Flyers (8-19, 3 OT losses) are now five points behind Macon and mired in the bottom of the Southern Professional Hockey League standings. The Ice Flyers will host fourth-place Fayetteville for three straight games beginning Friday at the Bay Center.
“There’s no excuses anymore. We are not proud of what the results have been,” said Ice Flyers defenseman and team captain Jake Hamilton. “Even if the effort is great, it’s not enough. We have to have wins.
“We’ve got to find a way to go the full 60 (minutes),” he said. “I feel like we outplayed Macon most of the game, but we’re not getting that puck luck.
“And honestly as a group I don’t think we’re desperate enough. All of us need to block more shots and we’re missing that last little bit of desperation to truly have that winning culture.”
Trailing 3-1 after two periods, the Ice Flyers got a lift when Michael Herrera scored less than five minutes into the third period. The Ice Flyers outshot Macon 15-5 in this period, just missing on several chances.
But any hope the Ice Flyers had of getting an extra attacker on the ice in the final minutes ended when Jonathan Bartuccio-Periera was whistled for a major (5 minute) boarding penalty that caused injury with 2:09. The Ice Flyers pulled goalie Brody Claeys with 1:06 remaining, but that only meant an even strength situation.
To their credit, the Ice Flyers generated two scoring chances despite the adverse circumstances.
“We put a face-off play on. and we still ended up getting Herrera — our best skater on the breakaway — so we got a scoring chance out of that,” said Graham, referring to Herrera’s chance from the side thwarted by Skinner.
“And Cayden Cahill, when we got (Claeys) pulled, he gets a Grade-A look and just missed it high and right, so we were still able to get two amazing scoring chances in that situation.”
The two back-to-back losses followed two consecutive road wins that had the Ice Flyers feeling they were on way to building a surge.
“We got three home games this week,” Graham said. “We have a tough opponent coming in. There are no easy games this year for the Ice Flyers until we find a consistent way of playing hockey.”
A quick recap:
FIRST PERIOD
The Ice Flyers Greg Susinski scored his first professional goal with 1:47 left in the period. He was in perfect position on a kick-save rebound from teammate Cahill’s slapshot inside the blue line and wristed the puck in the open net.
The teams were tied 9-9 on shots and there was only one penalty whistled.
SECOND PERIOD
Macon tied the game just 1:51 into the period on a breakaway finished by Hugo Koch, following a great pass on his stick from teammate Justin Kelly.
Ten minutes later, Justin Kelley rifled a shot past Clayes from outside the faceoff circle that traveled through some raised sticks.
“I don’t know if that second goal was a high stick,” Graham said. “We all feel like we got hosed in that situation, and we didn’t handle the adversity well after that and that’s how they got the third goal.”
The third goal was scored with just 1:56 left in the period on a shot through traffic.
THIRD PERIOD
Five minutes into the period the Ice Flyers had two chances in a scramble in the crease area. A Macon player moved in and blocked two shots with Skinner away from area.
Later in the period, Doug Elgstam was robbed on a deflection on a rush to the net situation that Skinner toward.
The late penalty then gave Macon its own power play of the third period.
“It was tough to see BP (Bartuccio-Pereira) get that five-minute major at the end,” Graham said. “We really felt like if we could get the goalie pulled, that we had the momentum, we really liked our chances on what we were doing, but it wasn’t in the cards.”
GAME NOTABLES
During the first intermission, the Ice Flyers honored radio broadcaster Paul Chestnutt, who has been the voice of hockey on the radio since the Ice Pilots inception in 1996.
He was presented a check from team owner Greg Harris in a ceremony that included a representative from Florida Blue. Chestnutt’s charity for his special needs son, Matthew, was the Ice Flyers designated “Charity of the Month” for December. Chestnutt and his son Matty were on the ice for the presentation.
That was preceded by a tug-of-war competition on First Responders Night. It was also Saving Sunday with discounted tickets made possible by game sponsor CPC Office Technologies.
Lane Harper, vice president of the local company, was recognized in the ceremonial puck drop.
WHAT’S NEXT?
WHO: Fayetteville Marksmen vs. Ice Flyers
WHEN: Friday through Sunday. Friday-Saturday games start at 7:05 p.m. and Sunday at 4:05 p.m.
WHERE: Pensacola Bay Center.
LIVESTREAM: FloHockey (subscription required).
LIVE STATS: www.thesphl.com
