 |
| Power
Play |
20.9%
- 3rd |
| Penalty
Killing |
81.2%
- 3rd |
| FORWARDS |
| ANDRE
GILL |
33-27-60
(+9) |
| DONALD
MELNYK |
26-27-53
(+3) |
| TREVOR
KARASIEWICZ |
10-29-39
(+8) |
| DEFENSEMEN |
| DAN
VANDERMEER |
13-57-70
(+23) |
| R.C.
LYKE |
3-14-17
(-4) |
| NATHAN
OKE |
4-10-14
(-11) |
| GOALTENDERS |
| RYAN
SENFT |
18-14-1
(2 SO)
3.13 GA
.907 PCT |
|
| JAY
CHRAPALA |
2-0-0
(0 SO)
2.90 GA
.916 PCT |
|
 |
|
 |
| |
Richmond
vs Fayetteville |
|
|
SCHEDULE |
| 1 |
MAR.
28 |
RICHMOND
1 - FAYETTEVILLE 4 |
SEED
4 |
2 |
MAR.
29 |
FAYETTEVILLE
5 - RICHMOND 4
OT |
SEED
3 |
27-22-3
(57) |
3 |
APR.
1 |
RICHMOND
at FAYETTEVILLE |
25-19-8
(58) |
| Fayetteville
Wins Series 2-0 |
|
SERIES
PREVIEW |
| |
Richmond,
VA
- If familiarity does breed contempt, round one of the
2007-08 SPHL playoffs between Richmond and Fayetteville
should be an interesting clash. The Renegades and FireAntz
have already nagged each other a dozen times this season,
with the Antz holding a seven-to-five edge in victories.
They’ll lock horns at least two more times before it’s
all done.
Round one of the playoffs opens Friday, March 28, at Fayetteville’s
Crown Coliseum, and continues at the Richmond Coliseum
the following night. If necessary, they’ll face off for
game three back at the Crown on Tuesday, April 1.
The winners of the three-game tilt will face the survivor
of the Jacksonville/Twin City series in the semi-finals.
The losers will be left to ponder next season.
Each team has enjoyed considerable success during its
52-game schedule, with ebbs and flows along the way. Richmond
followed up an SPHL-record 12-game winning streak with
six consecutive losses. Fayetteville capped their seven-game
streak by losing eight out of the next nine.
The 12 meetings between them have produced three-game
winning streaks three separate times; twice by Fayetteville
and once by Richmond. The FireAntz have the upper hand,
but the two teams can’t seem to get away from each other.
Current momentum favors Fayetteville. Consecutive wins
in their final two regular-season games lifted the Antz
(25-19-8) to the number three seed and wrestled home-ice
advantage away from Richmond (27-22-3). Although a pair
of one-goal losses dropped the ‘Gades to fourth, they
had just hit another upswing in their topsy-turvy season,
winning four of five games prior to the final two.
Their styles of play seem as different as the playing
backgrounds of their respective coaches. With 222 points
coming from his top four scorers, Tommy Stewart’s high-flying
FireAntz have a clear edge in offensive firepower. Always
a quick starter, Fayetteville has scored first 10 out
of 12 times against Richmond, and usually holds on to
the lead. They’ve won five of seven when leading the ‘Gades
after the first period.
Brian Goudie deserves credit for selling his defense-first
mentality to players on both sides of Richmond’s blue
line, as evidenced by a superior plus/minus rating among
his top players. His team’s 14-6-3 record in one-goal
games towers over Fayetteville’s 8-4-8. Overtime losses
have been a ball and chain for the FireAntz, with three
of them coming at the hands of the ‘Gades.
Defenseman-of-the-year candidate Dan Vandermeer leads
Richmond with 70 points, a +23 rating, and has contributed
to nine out of 14 special teams goals against the FireAntz.
He elevates the play of his teammates at both ends of
the rink and dominates ice time on special teams. The
Renegades have held opponents to a low 55 power-play goals,
and with Fayetteville near the top in man-advantage situations,
look for Vandermeer to be a big factor in the series.
Andre Gill leads Richmond’s attack on Fayetteville’s net
with seven goals and eight assists. Linemate Trevor Karasiewicz
is the only other Renegade to touch up the Antz for more
than a point per game, with three and five respectively
in his seven tries.
The line of Donald Melnyk (five goals, four assists),
recently returned Brett Needham (three goals, six assists)
and newcomer Don Patrick should be able to contribute
in this series as well. Goudie’s speedy line of Justin
Joy, Dan Hickman and Dennis Sicard will certainly rattle
the boards, and don’t be surprised if they find the back
of the net, too.
Richmond’s defense has held opponents to a minimal number
of quality shots on net this season. That will be their
primary objective against point-per-gamers Tim Velemirovich,
Rob Sich and Justin Keller, who have led the FireAntz’
charge. Marc Norrington has been on fire lately, and B.J.
Stephens, who seems to do his best work against the Gades,
certainly warrants extra attention as well.
Keeping those guys in check will be important to starting
goalie Ryan Senft, who has struggled somewhat against
Fayetteville with a 4-6-0 record and a 3.62 goals-against
average. Goudie has a viable back-up in Jay Chrapala,
but with only two starts this season, he may fight rust
issues if he gets the sudden call to action.
Stewart will almost certainly go with netminder Chad Collins,
who has given up only 11 goals and one loss in his five
starts against the ‘Gades this season.
In this series, look for home ice to be a big advantage
for Fayetteville, where Richmond has won only twice this
season –- and if the regular-season series is any indicator,
the Renegades will need to score early and often to pull
this rabbit out of their hat.
Contact the author at tom.brandt@prohockeynews.com.
|
|
|
Game
1 |
Richmond
1 - Fayetteville 4 |
| by
Tom Brandt - PROHOCKEYNEWS.COM |
Fayetteville
Leads Series 1-0 |
Fayetteville,
NC - After losing home-ice advantage to the Fayetteville FireAntz for round one of the SPHL playoffs, the Richmond Renegades knew they’d have to get the first game off to a fast start at the Crown Coliseum Friday night. Unfortunately for them, Fayetteville FireAntz goalie Chad Collins was up to the challenge, backstopping the home team to a 4-1 victory in Game One of their best-of-three series.
Game Two is set for Saturday night in Richmond.
The Renegades controlled the flow in the early going, getting lots of shots on goal, but found themselves unable to convert the early momentum into points on the board. By the time they did, as has happened many times between the two teams this season, the FireAntz had the lead and never looked back.
At 12:52 of the first period, linesman David Dries booted Fayetteville forward Tim Velemirovich from a face-off in the right side of Richmond’s zone. Rob Sich took over for his linemate, won the drop and kicked the puck back to Keller, who fired and bounced it off of Renegades’ goalie Ryan Senft. As the puck flipped through the air, Velemirovich swung and connected, driving home Fayetteville’s first goal.
Few goalies, if any, could have stopped the freak shot. It victimized Senft, who performed quite well, stopping 33 of 36 shots while present in Richmond’s net. With a little more support, the game could have gone quite differently for the Renegades.
"We’ve just got to find a way to get some traffic in front of the net and score some goals on them. They’re a good scoring team – they come to the net hard, and there’s hardly ever a time when you make a save and there’s not another guy right on top of you," Senft said.
Before the Gades ever got on the board, the FireAntz struck again at 14:54 of the second, this time on the power play. Defenseman Lawne Snyder took a feeder from Sich and B.J. Stephens and fired a rocket shot past Senft from above the right circle. That would be all Fayetteville needed to outscore the Renegades, who failed to convert on any of their eight man-advantages.
It’s not that the Renegades didn’t have their chances, they just never capitalized on them.
"The bottom line is you’re not going to win many games when you get 40 shots on net and only score one goal. We aren’t finishing -- we got forty shots, we had three-on-ones, breakaways… the guys just aren’t putting the puck in the net," Richmond coach Brian Goudie said."You’ve got to get down in the trenches and get dirty. If the guys want to hang around the perimeter, they’re not going to get their goals in the playoffs."
Dennis Sicard got Richmond’s only goal on the night when he did just that, narrowing the FireAntz lead to 2-1. On a night when the Renegades could have really used a goal from their blue-collar line, they got it. Too bad that for them that their scoring lines weren’t able to follow suit.
"Andre Gill worked hard to get it down there for me. I just drove to the net and put it to the left side. I didn’t get everything on it… it wasn’t pretty, but it counted," Sicard said.
Fayetteville netminder Chad Collins, who otherwise had a flawless performance on the night, agreed.
"It kind of fooled me a little bit, but those are the kind of playoff goals that hard-working guys get," he said.
The backbreaking goal for the Renegades came at 16:46 of the third on a Fayetteville odd-man rush that reversed a good Richmond push at Collins’ goal. Jarrett Robertson made it 3-1 with a straight-on shot after Senft bit on a slick pass from Chad Haacke. The FireAntz added an empty-netter at 19:17 to round out the scoring.
Collins’ performance fueled the FireAntz. He handled almost everything that came his way, stopping 40 of 41 shots on net and earning himself a well-deserved first star of the game. Despite giving up a few juicy rebounds, there were rarely any Renegades in position to take advantage.
"That’s the Chad we need. He’s the most important guy
when it comes to the playoffs," Fayetteville captain Corey
Hessler said. "The guys were a little too excited and
made a few mistakes early on, but then we settled down
after we saw Chad make a few big saves, and we rallied
around him."
Contact
the author at tom.brandt@prohockeynews.com
|
|
|
Game
2 |
Fayetteville
5 - Richmond 4 (OT) |
| by
Tom Brandt - PROHOCKEYNEWS.COM |
Fayetteville
Wins Series 2-0 |
Richmond,
VA
– In post-season hockey, players have a chance to shine
under a brighter spotlight – the ability to execute under
the increased intensity draws the line between winning
and losing. Come crunch time, most of the FireAntz’ star
players did, while the key hands of the Renegades did
not.
Fayetteville marched ahead in defense of their SPHL title
Saturday night, defeating the Renegades in overtime 5-4.
They’ll move on to face the winner of the tilt between
Twin City and Jacksonville.
The loss silenced the majority of the 3,124 fans at the
Richmond Coliseum, but delighted several hundred FireAntz
fans in attendance. They represented well, trading choruses
of verbal jabs throughout the game with the raucous Renegade
fans.
Richmond never led, but used two goals from Dennis Sicard
and one each from Brett Needham and Justin Joy to tie
the score on four separate occasions. It just wasn’t enough.
“I give them credit, they went toe to toe. We had the
lead three times, and they fought back every time,” said
Fayetteville head coach Tommy Stewart.
Rob Sich broke beat goalie Ryan Senft with the game-winner
at 9:01 of the extra frame. “(Matt) Moreland started the
play over by the bench, and I was cutting to try to split
the D. He flipped it up in the middle. One of the Richmond
guys batted it down, and it bounced over two guys’ sticks.
Mo (Moreland) picked it up and went wide, so I went hard
to the net. He flipped it out front, and the only thing
I could do was redirect it – and it worked out,” said
Sich.
In a sweep of the two-game series, Fayetteville turned
the tables on Richmond, all but shutting out their two
scoring lines by initiating a physical style of play that
the Renegades typically bring to the FireAntz.
Fayetteville’s main scorers never shied away from the
task and ground the boards effectively in both games.
Stewart knew that would be a key in the series.
“The Renegades had usually dictated the physical play
to us, especially in the last regular-season game. They’re
probably the hardest working team in the SPHL, and we
knew we had to come ready to match their intensity. That
was one of our goals,” said Stewart.
The FireAntz’ lead tandem of Tim Velemirovich and Sich
led by example in this series. “We took the physical play
to them instead of giving them the chance to initiate
it. We wanted to keep them thinking that we were going
to hit them and maybe pop the puck out and get a chance
off the rush,” said Velemirovich.
They did indeed – but perhaps more importantly, also moved
the puck around well enough to get goals from nine different
players. The Renegades’ third line of Justin Joy flanked
by Dennis Sicard and Dan Hickman was left to handle not
only most of the dirty work but the bulk of the scoring,
too.
“If you’re going to be successful in the playoffs you
need everybody going – guys picking up the slack when
one line might not be getting it done. That third line
did a hell of a job for us here in the last couple of
games,” said Renegades’ captain Dan Vandermeer. Exceptional
efforts from Sicard and Joy resulted in four out of Richmond’s
five goals in the series.
“I had to step it up. It’s all about grinding in the playoffs...
getting in front of the net, getting rebounds, getting
goals that way – that’s how it works,” said Sicard.
What didn’t work in Richmond’s post-season was the power
play, which converted a dismal one out of 16. Fayetteville
went three for eight, pegging the needle at 37.5% effectiveness.
Again, the Renegades certainly had their chances. They
outshot the FireAntz for the second night in a row by
a wide margin, but netminder Chad Collins deflected or
gloved most of the shots that didn’t hit him dead center
or clang off the pipes.
“I just tried to hold my team in there and hoped we got
the first goal, and we sure enough did,” said Collins.
“It just wasn’t meant to be. We peppered them pretty good
with 55 shots, just couldn’t get a bounce when we needed
to,” said Vandermeer.
They couldn’t -- and that dreaded first goal curse bit
the ‘Gades in the backside once again.
Contact the author at tom.brandt@prohockeynews.com
|
|
|
 |
|
 |
| Power
Play |
20.8%
- 4th |
| Penalty
Killing |
80.7%
- 5th |
| FORWARDS |
| TIM
VELEMIROVICH |
23-48-71
(-13) |
| JUSTIN
KELLER |
30-40-70
(-16) |
| ROB
SICH |
29-31-60
(-3) |
| DEFENSEMEN |
| COREY
HESSLER |
9-33-42
(-8) |
| MARK
COLE |
3-21-24
(+1) |
| LAWNE
SNYDER |
6-13-19
(+2) |
| GOALTENDERS |
| CHAD
COLLINS |
16-11-5
(0 SO)
3.40 GA
.901 PCT |
|
| KYLE
KNECTEL |
9-8-3
(0 SO)
3.85 GA
.892 PCT |
|
|
|
