Ice Flyers Seek To Regain Groove On The Road After Weekend Losses
By Bill Vilona
Ice Flyers Correspondent
Home ice losses rarely provide Ice Flyers coach Rod Aldoff any reason for solace.
But the scoring chances generated in Saturday’s 2-1 loss against the Knoxville Ice Bears, which was a game preceding an extended road trip, were something he found encouraging.
“It was a better effort,” he said, referring to how displeased he was Friday night in the 4-1 loss to the Ice Bears. “The guys fought right till the end (Saturday). We had some opportunities there at the end.
“The effort is always there with this team, but you have to work smart. We’ll get there. We have to keep building.”
A crowd of 4,037 for Military Appreciation Night, sponsored by Navy Federal at the Pensacola Bay Center, continued a Saturday trend of 4,000-plus attendance. Many were not settled in seats yet when Knoxville scored a pair of goals in the first 10 minutes.
But from that point, the Ice Flyers were creating more odd-man rushes and received stellar goaltending from Cody Karpinski, who stopped 28 shots.
In the final 80 seconds, after pulling Karpinski for the extra attacker, they had several pucks on stick blades with a chance to tie. Marcus Russell was thwarted with his chance as 7.3 seconds remained.
Earlier in the third period, several other Ice Flyers had point blank shots turned away.
Knoxville goaltender Kristian Stead finished with 36 saves and was an easy choice for the game’s No. 1 star mention. He faced 71 shots in the two weekend games and yielded just two goals.
“We’ve got to work on our target practice a little bit,” Aldoff said. “We shot a lot of pucks at him this weekend, both games. You’re not going to score in pro hockey shooting right at goaltenders. We have to sharpen up on that for sure.”
The Ice Bears got their first goal with two seconds left on a power-play. Dean Balsamo wristed a shot through traffic that got behind a screened Karpinski.
Jared Nash followed 1:17 later with a goal off a deflection that went under Karpinski’s pad. The rest of the game, however, Karpinski was a reason why the Ice Flyers had chances for a tying goal, after making several big saves.
“Cody is playing well. Both of our (goaltenders) are good guys,” Aldoff said. “They work hard and they are good guys. They put the time in to get better.”
The Ice Flyers will have time on their hands as they travel to Roanoke, Virginia with a stopover for practice ice somewhere. They play Feb. 18-20 against the Roanoke Rail Yard Dawgs as part of nine road games in the next 12 games overall.
The Ice Flyers will not play another Friday or Saturday game for a month. The Bay Center has three major events booked: Pensacon, Mardi Gras week, then the Sun Belt Conference Basketball Tournaments.
“I’m used to the schedule,” said Aldoff, referring to home ice gap. “But these players are not.”
In trying to get a desired sendoff Saturday, the Ice Flyers’ Dylan Carabia delivered an early, second period goal, that followed several loose puck chances for Knoxville near the Ice Flyers crease.
Carabia broke from the blue line and went inside the Ice Bears’ line before rifling a shot that found the top corner of the net. The fans were energized and the Ice Flyers’ puck control produced a variety of game-tying chances in the third period.
You want those Grade-A chances. We were there. We had some good ones. We’ve got to work on our target practice a little bit.
“We had a couple good looks there at the end and it just didn’t fall our way,” Aldoff said. “We had some time to look (where to shoot)… Just didn’t take advantage of it. You want to create those open situations.”
He’s hoping the road practices can help shore up a season-long issue.
WHAT’S NEXT?
WHO: Ice Flyers vs. Roanoke Rail Yard Dawgs
WHEN: Feb. 18-20
WHERE: Berglund Center, Roanoke, Va.
NEXT HOME GAME: Feb. 27 vs. Macon Mayhem.
