Ice Flyers Bounce Back With Win, Set Attendance Record Before Hitting Road Again
By Bill Vilona
Ice Flyers Correspondent
There was no hangover from Bushwackers Night.
Instead, Pensacola followed its special, one-night rebrand, reverted back hours later Sunday afternoon to being the Ice Flyers and bounced back with a 5-2 victory against the Knoxville Ice Bears. It was a performance coach Rod Aldoff hopes can be consistently matched in the final stretch toward the playoffs.
“Overall, it was a great two points (Sunday) for us,” said Aldoff, whose team had a tough 2-1 loss Saturday against the Ice Bears on Bushwackers Night at the Pensacola Bay Center. “The first two periods (Sunday) were excellent. We battled hard on pucks, we hit a lot, which we needed to do. And we got the results from it.”
They also hit a milestone.
The Ice Flyers attendance of 5,512 for Saturday’s Bushwackers Night pushed them closer to their highest season attendance in franchise history. After Sunday’s crowd of 3,533, that record was officially broken, sending their total attendance to 116,250 in 25 home games with three home games to play, along with attaining a current per-game average of 4,650.
The Ice Flyers have three more home games, all in the same weekend on March 24-26.
“Whenever you can break attendance records it is a testament to the support we have, the people that we have and everybody involved that work very hard to make this Ice Flyers machine work,” said Ice Flyers owner Greg Harris.
“We needed to rebound (Sunday) in a big way and the players did,” Harris said. “They came out strong, we finished strong. The last few games (the team) has been a little rocky, but we need to start playing that playoff hockey and have that playoff mentality that when you’re up, you have to stay up and you have to pull off the wins.”
With nine games remaining, the Ice Flyers (23-20, 4 OT losses and 50 points) now head to Fayetteville, North Carolina this week for three defining games against the Marksmen (18-21, 8 OT losses, 44 points). The Marksmen are tied with the Quad City Storm for eighth place and the final playoff spot in the SPHL standings.
This will be the team’s third, full road weekend trip in the past four weeks. The Ice Flyers have an opportunity to nearly seal-up a playoff spot with success this week. In the standings, they trail sixth-place Roanoke by six points.
“We have to focus on what we want to do,” Aldoff said. “Whether we are playing a team behind us or ahead of us it doesn’t matter. We have to go win games and do the right things. All the games are important. No bones about it. We have to go win hockey games.”
Ivan Bondarenko led the way Sunday with two goals and an assist. He scored the game’s first goal with 3:56 left in the first period. He then picked up an assist on the first of Andrew Dunham’s two goals from a 3-on-1 break in the second period.
Bondarenko then gave the Ice Flyers a 3-0 lead at second intermission, scoring with 2:58 remaining on assists from Dunham and Tommy Stang.
Named the game’s No. 1 star, Bondarenko provided a performance that Aldoff mentioned will be essential from him the rest of the season.
“When he plays hard and battles hard, he’s got a very high skill level in our league,” Aldoff said. “When he is battling and going for pucks, and fighting with second effort, he is an elite player. That is the difference with him.
“He played with urgency, he played with some push back. I was very happy with the way he played and I’m happy for him.”
The Ice Flyers highlight goal was scored by Joey Sofo late in the first period. He had three shots on the same play. After two rebounds, he deked the Ice Bears goaltender, who was flat on the ice, and tapped into the empty net.
“Those are skill type of goals,” Aldoff said. “Players with patience and can see the next type of play and he knew he had to do that…. And saw it before it was going to happen and he finished it off.”
Dunham finished off the game’s scoring with his goal that occurred with 41 seconds remaining. That provided the crowd on Friends and Family Day at the arena with another final goal dance.
Ice Flyers goaltender Brad Arvanitis had another big game, stopping 30 shots. He has become the team’s No. 1 goaltender heading into the final weeks of the season. He’s now 6-3 in regulation-play games since joining the team in January.
The weekend finale Sunday was a harder-checking, far more chippier game than Saturday’s game against the Ice Bears. Aldoff liked the way his team responded to match the contact.
“We needed to be physical,” he said. “And I am talking about finishing checks. Backchecking hard to finish checks. Hitting in the neutral zone, the things you have to do over and over to win.
“Because in the playoffs it gets tight, it gets grindy, the games get heavy and if you are not willing to do it, you are done. It is not rocket science. It is pretty basic. When you play that way and you are a hard individual to play against and everybody is doing that, then you are a hard team to play against.”
GAME NOTABLES
— Merchandise sales Saturday night in the “Bushwackers Night” game exceeded all expectations. Harris said the total sales were “45 percent higher” than the previous, best one-game, merchandise sales. He said the team will soon announce online sales of more Pensacola Bushwackers apparel and merchandise.
— The Ice Flyers’ Friends and Family Day promotion Sunday provided four tickets, four Ice Flyers hats, and a food voucher to sponsor partners Texas Roadhouse or Bubba’s 33, both located on North Davis Highway, for a total price of $60 per family. The Ice Flyers will end their home schedule on March 26 with a final Friends and Family Day promotion. Ticket packages are available through www.iceflyers.com.
— When in-game emcee, “Big Moose,” from Cat Country 98.7 asked for first-time fans at an Ice Flyers game to stand Sunday, hundreds of people did so. It was a telltale sign of how many new people the team is attracting to games and how it’s led to attendance surge.
— The Ice Flyers have eight players under contract playing in the higher-level ECHL. Aldoff said any of those players are eligible to be added to a playoff roster all the way until final day of the regular season on April 9.
WHAT’S NEXT?
WHO: Ice Flyers vs. Fayetteville Marksmen
WHEN: Thursday-Saturday (3 games), Thursday’s game at 9 a.m. (CDT), Friday at 6:15, Saturday at 5 p.m.
WHERE: Crown Coliseum, Fayetteville, N.C.
LIVESTREAM AUDIO: www.thesphl.com.
LIVESTREAM VIDEO: www.hockeytv.com/league/sphl(subscription required).
FINAL HOME GAMES: March 24-26 vs. Evansville Thunderbolts
