Ice Flyers Get Big Win Under Adverse Circumstances Before Nearly 6,000 At Bay Center

March 31, 2024

Ice Flyers Get Big Win Under Adverse Circumstances Before Nearly 6,000 At Bay Center

By Bill Vilona

Ice Flyers.com Correspondent

Just as they’ve often done this season, the Ice Flyers rebounded from a previous night loss and made Saturday’s game a feel-good recovery.

This one Saturday, on the final home weekend of the season, may have been the most satisfying and crowd-pleasing.

Playing without three forwards, including leading scorer Joseph Widmar, the Ice Flyers relied on their grit and their fists to produce a 4-3 victory against the Evansville Thunderbolts, thus sending a crowd of 5,851 celebrating in the game’s eventful final two minutes.

With a late high-sticking penalty to Dale Deon, the Ice Flyers had to fend off a 6-on-4 situation when Evansville pulled goaltender Cole Ceci for an extra attacker on the power play.

Ice Flyers goaltender Stephen Mundinger made five saves in the sequence, and the Ice Flyers won a key faceoff in the final 35 seconds and were able to finish off the win.

“I thought we responded well,” said winger Houston Wilson, who had an assist and goal in the second period to build a 3-1 lead. “We were short up front. We knew it was going to be a battle, we knew it was going to be a tight checking physical game and we were prepared.”

By winning the Ice Flyers pushed ahead in their overall record (25-24-2-2) heading into a weekend finale on Easter Sunday against the Macon Mayhem that will complete the Ice Flyers’ regular-season home schedule. By winning, the Ice Flyers secured seventh-place, the No. 7 seed for the playoffs. Evansville will be the eighth seed.

The game recap:

FIRST PERIOD

Unlike Friday’s game, this had a far less contentious start.

There were no penalties whistled and the shots on goal were close with a 10-8 Evansville advantage. The Thunderbolts had the first scoring chance on a 2-on-1 break, but the shot wasn’t on goal.

Ice Flyers captain Garrett Milan was credited for the game’s first goal, 3:44 into the period when a shot by Mitch Atkins deflected off him and into the net. Houston Wilson also received an assist on the play.

Mundinger then made a sensational leg save on Evansville’s second prime 2-on-1 chance. But the third time the Thunderbolts got an odd-man rush, they scored on Matthew Hobbs wrist shot into a top corner with 8:51 left.

Mundinger made another big save with 3:13 left on a shot inside the blue line and the period ended tied without another quality scoring chance.

SECOND PERIOD

The Ice Flyers were outshot 22-15 in this period, but left into intermission with a 3-1 lead in the game.

Spencer Kennedy again made an impact on offense by flicking a shot from the side of the net that forced Evansville goaltender Cole Ceci to make a save, but the puck bounced in front and with Ceci sprawled on ice, Mitch Atkins poked the disc in the net with 11:40 left in the period.

The sequence was set up by hard work from Houston Wilson, who was active the entire shift in the Thunderbolts’ zone and got the puck to Kennedy.

Wilson was then rewarded again, this time on his goal with 6:28 remaining when he buried a rebound from Brock Paul’s shot with 6:18 remaining to provide a 3-1 lead.

Less than a minute later, the Ice Flyers’ Malik Johnson brawled with Evansville’s Hobbs after both players squared off during play. Both landed several punches, Johnson wrestled Hobbs to the ice, then got up and exhorted the crowd as he circled to the penalty box.

THIRD PERIOD

This began with more fisticuffs. The Ice Flyers Sean Gulka and Evansville’s Bronson Adams duked it out after the period-opening faceoff.

That began an eventful final period where Evansville twice trimmed the lead to one goal.

The Ice Flyers Taylor Egan got the game-winning goal with 13:33 left in the period on an assist from Lucas Herrman.

Three minutes later, Evansville again trimmed the deficit, but in the final 10 minutes the Ice Flyers limited Evansville’s chances and Mundinger made more big saves to preserve the win.

NOTABLES

— The crowd of 5,851 fell just short of giving the Ice Flyers their ninth crowd of 6,000-plus this season. But it was the largest crowd of March and the third time a crowd of 5,000-plus was generated this month.

— It continued the Ice Flyers strong relationship with Navy Federal Credit Union on these Military Appreciation Nights.

— Ice Flyers owner Greg Harris produced a special moment of the season when he presented Rally Foundation Gulf Coast with a $60,000 donation toward the non-profit organization’s continuing efforts to aid area children battling cancer and treatments. Harris was joined on ice during a second-period timeout with many children who are being aided in the community and a loud ovation ensued from the crowd. Both teams’ players responded, too, by tapping sticks on the boards.

— The National Anthem was performed by the Haze Gray Quartet, retired military members living in Pensacola from four different branches of the U.S. Armed Forces. It also featured a color guard from Naval Air Station Whiting Field-Pensacola.

— Christopher Otto, executive officer of Naval Air Station-Whiting Field performed a ceremonial puck drop with members of his family. He was preceded by an executive from Navy Federal.

— A group of Air Force members won the tug-of-war contest at center ice against a Navy group during the first intermission.

QUOTABLES

Ice Flyers coach Gary Graham:

“It was a challenging game. We were already playing short. We had three guys that were in our lineup Friday that didn’t play. We lost (Sean) Ross and (Nick) Leitner) to injury and Widmar had to fly home (Saturday) for a personal reason. It was a challenging day as a coach. I had to change up all the lines. Guys were playing in different positions. We knew it was going to be a physical game.

“Dinger (Mundinger), I thought should have been the first star of the game and made some big saves and really kept us in it. He played spectacular all weekend.”

Houston Wilson On Second-Period Production:

“I think that was a crucial time in the game. To get momentum like that, the crowd was amazing and it just gave us the energy to come out there every shift and battle, even though we were short up front, so it was great.”