Aldoff’s Return As Ice Flyers Coach Foiled by Evansville’s Third-Period Comeback
By Bill Vilona, Ice Flyers Correspondent
PENSACOLA, FLA. – There was a natural mix of emotions Friday night when Rod Aldoff walked to the Ice Flyers bench, preparing for a third different return as the team’s head coach.
“Just even in pregame and walking on the ice (before opening face), to be honest, it felt like yesterday,” said Aldoff, who was named Monday as the Ice Flyers coach to finish the season, replacing Gary Graham, who he knew well.
“It felt like … I’ve done it so many years here, it just felt like the next game and here we go. But it has been two years, But it felt good behind the bench and competing.”
Unfortunately for Aldoff and the Ice Flyers, what seemed to be a perfect capper for the evening, suddenly turned into disappointment.
Leading 2-0 with less than nine minutes remaining, the Ice Flyers yielded two power play goals against the Evansville Thunderbolts in a three-minute span, then a go-ahead and empty net goal to follow, resulting in a 4-3 loss to begin a three-game series that is a must-win situation for playoff hopes.
It left a crowd of 4,084 at the Pensacola Bay Center going from hopeful to deflated from the third period fall.
“I thought overall we were the better team, so it was a tough one,” Aldoff said.
The Ice Flyers called timeout and pulled goaltender Cody Karpinski with 1:57 left in the game for an extra attacker. That resulted in Eimantas Noreika scoring with 48 seconds remaining to halve the deficit. In the final seconds, several Ice Flyers players had the puck on their stick near the goal area but were denied.
“I think in the last 10 seconds we had four sticks in the slot,” Aldoff said. “The guys battled back. They pushed hard. It was a tough one.”
Midway though the third period, however, a different feeling existed. The Ice Flyers led 2-0 on a second-period goal by Cale List and early third period goal by Blake Tosto.
But a delay of game penalty against Nick Pryce for an attempted puck clear that went over the glass, began the downfall.
Just 39 seconds after that penalty was called, Evansville’s Tyson Gilmour scored the power play goal. A couple minutes later, Sam Dabrowski was called for tripping as he chased an Evansville player behind the Thunderbolts’ goal cage.
That led to Gilmour assisting on the game-tying goal by Scott Kirton.
The Ice Flyers have been great this season on home ice penalty kills. They had allowed just eight goals in 20 home games, second best percentage in the league.
“I just told the team, there were a lot of positive things that happened in this game,” Aldoff said. “You take those two power plays away… but at end of the day, those were just some unfortunate incidents.
“Shooting the puck over the glass, those are penalties we just cannot do. We have to control what we can control and those are things that we just cannot do.
“We’re getting pulled all the time. We don’t need to help pull the wrong way. We have to stay away from that stuff.”
With 3:23 left, Kirton got a rebound from his own shot and buried the go-ahead goal past Karpinski. The Thunderbolts then got an empty net goal immediately after the faceoff that followed the Ice Flyers timeout in the final two minutes.
“I thought overall, up and down the ice, we were the better team,” Aldoff said. “We outplayed them. We deserved better, but it doesn’t matter, they (Thunderbolts) won the hockey game.
“It just comes down to licking our wounds and try to get better and I hate to say that, because I know what (Ice Flyers) been through. It was just a real tough one.”
A quick recap.
FIRST PERIOD
No scoring. The Ice Flyers didn’t get their first shot on goal until four minutes into the opening period. Each team had only three shots midway through the period.
But then the Ice Flyers found stride with 10 shots, including several good looks on their power play opportunity, but couldn’t a puck in the net.
SECOND PERIOD
Cale List scored his fifth goal of the season, after making move to his left to deke a defender inside the blue line and then rifled a wrist shot through traffic into the net with 10:30 left for the game’s first goal. Pryce and Tosto both had assists.
Evansville got its first power play chance with 7:14 remaining, but the Ice Flyers killed that one off.
THIRD PERIOD
Ivan Bondarenko made a perfect pass to Tosto in the crease area and he flicked the puck into the net at 2:59 into the third period for the Ice Flyers second goal. Pryce set up the play with good work behind the net.
The Ice Flyers then got a big chance to further their lead when Evansville’s Matthew Hobbs was called for a double-minor (4 minute penalty) for a high sticking penalty that drew blood at 4:51 into the period. But the Ice Flyers were thwarted and that shifted some momentum back to Evansville.
GAME NOTABLES
The game was designated as College Night with Pensacola State College as the game’s sponsor and discount tickets for area college students. The PSC men’s basketball team was in attendance, along with school administrators and other personnel from PSC.
School president Dr. Ed Meadows has honored with the ceremonial puck drop.
Fans can bid on autographed goal pucks from tonight’s game on dash.
WANT TO GO?
WHO: Evansville Thunderbolts vs. Ice Flyers
WHEN: Saturday, 7:05 p.m. and Sunday at 4:05 p.m.
WHERE: Pensacola Bay Center
PROMOTION: Saturday is Military Appreciation Night, presented by Navy Federal Credit Union with 50-percent discount tickets for center ice seats for all active and retired military and guests when tickets are purchased at the Bay Center box office with a Military ID. Sunday’s game is Savings Sunday presented by HCA Florida West Hospital with significant discounts on all Ice Flyers merchandise through the first half of the game.
TICKETS: www.iceflyers.com
