Ice Flyers Celebrate Weekend Sweep, Franchise Attendance Record On Special St. Patrick’s Night
By Bill Vilona
IceFlyers.com Correspondent
The Ice Flyers broke from their traditional, center-ice, salute to fans for a victory lap around the ice after their grinding, 2-1 victory against the Huntsville Havoc on Saturday that swept the weekend pair of games from the Havoc at the Pensacola Bay Center.
It further elevated a festive setting on St. Patrick’s Celebration Night at the arena, which included a pregame party outside and the team wearing specialty green jerseys on the ice. What’s more, the Ice Flyers surpassed last year’s franchise record attendance with a crowd of 4,867 that pushed season attendance to 134,127 and three more home games left at the end of the month.
A year ago, the Ice Flyers drew 130,024 for 28 home games.
Against an opponent ahead them in the standings, the Ice Flyers responded from their three road losses last weekend to put themselves on the doorstep to clinching a playoff spot.
The win kept the Ice Flyers (23-23, 3 OT losses, 49 points) four points ahead of Evansville in seventh place, but most importantly, Pensacola is now 13 points ahead of ninth place Knoxville Ice Bears with each team having seven games left in the season.
So essentially, the Ice Flyers can seal a playoff spot with the next game, which will be against last place Macon next Friday in Macon, GA.
The Havoc (25-18, 7 OT losses, 57 points before Saturday) clinched a playoff spot weeks ago and are battling for a top tier finish. They ended Saturday’s game in fifth place, three points behind Fayetteville for fourth place.
The game recap:
FIRST PERIOD
The game began with one of the most contentious opening periods of the season. It also was a sign of how this game would evolve.
Less than four minutes into the period, Huntsville’s Eric Henderson delivered a hard check with an elbow along the boards that injured Troy Button. Teammate Sean Gulka immediately raced to the Havoc bench and was ready to drop gloves with any player. He slugged one player before a linesman grabbed him.
But after benches calmed, the Ice Flyers were on a power play. A minute later, they had the game’s first goal.
Garrett Milan made the perfect pass to Joseph Widmar, who buried a one-timer shot into the net for his 17th goal of the season.
With 8:15 left, the Havoc thought they had the tying goal, after a shot by Buster Larsson slipped through the pads of Ice Flyers goaltender Stephen Mundinger. But the Ice Flyers’ Nick Leitner swept the puck out of the goal area as the puck straddled the goal line.
After stopping play, the officials reviewed the play for several minutes before signaling no goal. The Ice Flyers later exited into intermission with 1-0 lead.
SECOND PERIOD
The Havoc tied the game with 13:50 left when Cole Reginato flicked in a loose puck on a scramble in front of the net. With Mundinger on his back and players battling, Reginato got a blade on the puck and scored.
But Milan and the Ice Flyers quickly answered 70 seconds later and it changed the game.
Milan broke free on the wing, came across the ice near the net, and flicked in a backhand shot between goaltender Brian Wilson’s pads for the 2-1 lead.
With nine seconds left in the period, Reginato was given a five-minute major, then a match penalty after decking the Ice Flyers Malik Johnson with a sucker punch. The Ice Flyers’ Lucas Herrmann left the bench to handle Reginato and was tossed from the game.
But that sequence further reinforced the Ice Flyers ability to answer with their own fists when Huntsville triggered a fight.
THIRD PERIOD
No scoring, but there were three power play chances. The Ice Flyers got two opportunities, but couldn’t cash in. Huntsville had a chance midway through the period.
The Havoc pulled Wilson with 1:38 remaining, then called a timeout nine seconds later. They kept the puck in the Ice Flyers zone, but never had a chance to set up for a clear shot. In the final seconds, the Ice Flyers kept the puck and battles along the board to kill more seconds.
Mundinger was hugged as the horn sounded. It was his 13th win this season.
NOTABLES
— Before the game, Ice Flyers hosted a St. Patrick’s pre-game party on the plaza. The event attracted a sizeable crowd and featured Colm Kelly, the McGuire’s Pipe Band and Rich McDuff.
— Billy Martin, the Chief Operating Officer of McGuire’s, performed the ceremonial puck drop. The famed eatery has now expanded to Panama City as its newest location.
— Rich McDuff performed the National Anthem. The McGuire’s Pipe Band entertained during the first intermission. Kelly entertained fans while performing and walking through the seating bowl.
— The online auction for the game-worn St. Patrick’s Day jerseys will continue until noon on Monday. There were replica jerseys as well on sale at the merchandise stands Saturday.
QUOTABLES:
Ice Flyers Coach Gary Graham: “Special teams was big tonight and that’s really what the game boiled down to. Dinger (Mundinger) made some big saves in the second period when we weren’t at our best. (Havoc) made a good push and they were clearly the better team in the second period and Dinger bailed us out several times.”
On Setting Attendance Record: “We’ve talked about it all year about how fans have embraced it and what we’re doing as an organization to put not only a fun produce on the ice, but the environment off the ice. I went out today and see the front parking lot (pre-game party) and it was unbelievable. Hearing Colm play in the stands and the bagpipes… they just really rolled out the red carpet for the fans in this event and I think that’s why the community is really rallying around the team and coming out to support even more because of what we are doing.”
On The Team Bouncing Back: “It was a grind last weekend. It was a coin-flip game last Friday against Peoria. We were not good on Saturday (vs. Peoria) and Evansville…we were the better team and lost with 16 seconds left, so it was disappointing to not get points. It was a long week. We dealt with a lot of adversity, roster changes and stuff, but I thought again this week… you are going to deal with that at the SPHL and ECHL level… you are going to have those weird weeks where it seems you can’t buy a break and we couldn’t last week. This week, we were able to reset, get some new guys in and they did a great job. We had a couple of good practices and got rewarded.
NEXT FACEOFF
WHO: Ice Flyers vs. Macon Mayhem
WHEN: March 22-23
WHERE: Macon Centreplex, Macon, Georgia.
ONLINE STREAMING: www.flohockey.com (subscription required).
GAME LIVE STATS: www.thesphl.com
NEXT HOME GAMES: March 29-31 (vs. Evansville on March 29-30; vs. Macon on March 31).
TICKETS: Available through www.iceflyers.com/tickets or at Bay Center box office on Saturday.
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Bid on tonight’s goal pucks here.
