 |
| 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 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
|
Fayetteville
vs Jacksonville |
|
|
SCHEDULE |
| 1 |
APR.
4
|
FAYETTEVILLE
2
- JACKSONVILLE 1 |
SEED
3 |
2 |
APR.
5 |
JACKSONVILLE
2 - FAYETTEVILLE 1 |
SEED
2 |
25-19-8
(58) |
3 |
APR.
7 |
FAYETTEVILLE
2 - JACKSONVILLE 6 |
30-17-5
(65) |
| *
If Necessary |
|
SERIES
PREVIEW |
| |
Jacksonville, FL - A year ago, the Jacksonville Barracudas and Fayetteville FireAntz battled for four games before Fayetteville claimed the SPHL championship. The underdog Barracudas played well against the high-powered FireAntz offense and vowed to return the favor this season. It may not be the finals but second-seeded Jacksonville will have that opportunity to exact revenge on third-seeded Fayetteville when the two teams meet in the best-of-three league semifinals series beginning Friday in Jacksonville.
Although it would be easy to use revenge as the main motivation for winning, don’t expect Jacksonville Coach Rick Allain to let it hide the main goal -- a return trip to the finals against the winner of the Knoxville/Columbus series.
“I think we can learn from last year’s playoffs,” Allain said. “The experienced guys that we have back from last year’s club certainly learned valuable lessons through that series as did their players. I don’t think we’re going to need any motivation nor will they with the winner getting a chance to play for a championship which is exactly what you strive for at the beginning of the year.”
This season, the teams met nine times, five times in Jacksonville and four more in Fayetteville. It could be said that it was a home-team dominated series as the FireAntz took three of the four at the Crown Coliseum while the Barracudas won three of the five at Jacksonville Ice. Three of the meetings went longer than regulation with Fayetteville winning one overtime contest against an overtime victory and a shootout win for Jacksonville.
“I was actually surprised looking at the numbers,” Allain said. “It felt to me like they had much more success than that against us during the season. I think it’s a pretty even match. I think it’s probably going to come down to intangibles and who gets key performances or big performances from key players.”
In those head-to-head meetings, the statistics were eerily similar. The teams played five one-goal games and split a pair of two-goal contests. Jacksonville allowed 3.44 goals per game to the FireAntz while Fayetteville allowed the Barracudas 3.67 goals each time. Jacksonville went 5-for-50 on the power play while Fayetteville went 7-for-41. The difference in shots allowed was a mere two over the nine games.
Individual player stats were just as close. Jacksonville had three players tally double digit points against Fayetteville. Kahlil Thomas (4-10-14, plus 3), Rob Colangelo (7-5-12, even) and Ryan Webb (5-6-11, plus 5) did the bulk of the damage with Chris Rebernik (3-4-7, minus 1), Jim Murphy (2-5-7, even), Frank Furdero (3-3-6, plus 5) and Geoff Rollins (2-4-6, even) following right behind.
Fayetteville had two players, Tim Velemirovich (2-11-13, plus 2) and Rob Sich (9-1-10, even), that scored ten or more points against the Barracudas. A third player - Edan Welch - was traded to Huntsville for Justin Keller who had three points in three games). Marc Norrington (7-1-8, plus 3) and BJ Stephens (2-6-8, even) spread the offense over to the other lines.
Of the goaltenders that populate the two teams’ rosters, Jacksonville’s Tim Haun was the best number-wise, sporting a 3-1 record and a 2.69 goals against average against the FireAntz while teammate Ryan Person went 1-3 with a 3.98 goals against. Fayetteville’s Chad Collins posted a 3-1-2 mark against the Barracudas with a 3.48 goals against mark. His back-up, Kyle Knectel, was 2-1 versus Jacksonville with a 3.23 goals against.
Thus far in the playoffs, Collins has been spectacular in net for the FireAntz. Following up his playoff MVP award from a year ago, he regained his form in the first round series against Richmond. In the two game sweep, Collins faced 96 shots and stopped 91 of them for an incredible .948 save percentage. According to Fayetteville coach Tommy Stewart, Collins’ play has elevated the confidence of the entire team.
“Chad Collins definitely upped the ante on intensity just like every guy (on the team),” Stewart said. “It’s huge. We know that anytime he can stop breakaways or two-on-ones. Our team should generate three to five goals every night so anytime you can get a goalie of his caliber that many goals, we should win hockey games.”
Offensively, Fayetteville was about as balanced as a team could get, getting goals from no less than nine different players and at least one point from 12 skaters. Defensively, only two players posted negative numbers in the plus/minus column. The penalty killing units were outstanding, allowing just one goal in 16 times short.
It was the play of the second line of Stephens, Norrington and Matt Moreland that Stewart seems most pleased about.
“We really have a 1A and a 1B,” Stewart said. “My second line probably could be a number one line on any team in this league. Two of them had over 20 goals and Moreland was a late addition who scored a huge goal for us. We have tremendous balance and things are going good right now.”
Jacksonville’s play in its series sweep over Twin City was just as impressive. Like Fayetteville, the Barracudas had nine players tally at least one goal, highlighted by rookie Frank Furdero’s hat trick in the series-clinching win. They also had 12 players put up at least a point. Haun has been solid in net, allowing six goals on 63 shots. The Jacksonville power play, rated last in the league during the regular season, found life with six goals in 14 chances.
Still, Stewart was confident that his team’s overall experience would be the deciding factor in the series.
“We were 5-2-2 against them this year," he said. "We had a great winning percentage against them but we got spanked the last time we were in Jacksonville. We have nine guys with championships on our team and four guys who have been to the finals so we have a lot of guys who have been there before and know what it takes to get the job done. I think it’s going to be a great series.”
Contact the author at
don.money@prohockeynews.com |
|
|
Game
1 |
Fayetteville
2 - Jacksonville 1 |
| by
Don Money - PROHOCKEYNEWS.COM |
Fayetteville
Leads Series 1-0 |
Jacksonville,
FL - Several of the players on the Jacksonville
Barracudas’ hockey team spent the pre-game hours fighting
flu-like symptoms. In the end, it was Fayetteville FireAntz
goalie Chad Collins who made them sicker than any virus
could.
Collins, the reigning SPHL Playoff MVP proved that he
is ready to take the award home again, stopping 34 of
35 shots as he and the visiting FireAntz defeated the
Barracudas 2-1 to take a 1-0 lead in their best-of-three
semifinal series. Fayetteville can close the series out
with a win in game two Saturday night in Fayetteville.
“He (Collins) stepped it up. He’s stepped up his intensity
like everybody else on the team,” Fayetteville coach Tommy
Stewart said. “He did a great job for us tonight.”
Both teams had been off since Sunday night but you never
would have known it. The play was up and down with each
side having flurries of action at the offensive end. The
closest either team came with 1:21 left in the period
when Rob Colangelo weaved his way into the Fayetteville
zone and caught the crossbar behind Collins. The puck
dropped straight down and Collins grabbed it before it
could cross the line. Referee Eugene Binda Jr. immediately
signaled no goal, much to the ire of the partisan Jacksonville
fans.
“I thought we played alright. You can’t control the bounces,”
Jacksonville coach Rick Allain said. “We played well enough
to win. Unfortunately they found a way to squeak a couple
behind (our goalie) and we could only squeak one behind.”
The second period was more of the same up and down action.
The best scoring chance early on was a blast from the
wing by Matt Moreland that Barracudas’ goalie Tim Haun
knocked down and covered up with an assist from the defense.
The FireAntz finally took advantage of the power play
late in the period when at the tail end of a five-on-three
man advantage when Tim Velemirovich’s cross-crease pass
deflected out to the slot where Moreland was standing.
Moreland’s quick shot beat Haun to put the visitors ahead
1-0.
Fayetteville looked to have put a stranglehold on the
game when Marc Norrington scored through a heavy screen
in front of Haun two minutes into the third. Jacksonville
kept plugging and finally broke through Collins at 10:45
when Connor MacDonald stuffed the rebound of a Jim Murphy
shot home. The pressure for most of the waning minutes
was Jacksonville’s but Collins and the FireAntz held the
fort. A key penalty against the Barracudas with 2:42 remaining
stalled the comeback bid long enough for Fayetteville
to kill the clock.
After the game, Jacksonville’s Allain said there were
no plans to alter his team’s approach going into Saturday’s
contest.
“We created enough chances to win (tonight),” Allain said.
“We just have to keep throwing pucks at the net, keep
throwing bodies at the net and hopefully a couple find
their way in there.”
Fayetteville’s Stewart knows that Jacksonville will pull
out all the stops to try to push the series to a deciding
game three on Monday but said that his FireAntz will be
ready.
“The pressure’s kind of off us a little bit but we’re
going back to our own building where we have to work hard,”
he said. “We’ve had success there of late. We just have
to work every period like we did tonight.”
Contact the author at
don.money@prohockeynews.com |
|
|
Game
2 |
Jacksonville
2 - Fayetteville 1 |
| by
Don Money - PROHOCKEYNEWS.COM |
Series
Tied 1-1 |
Fayetteville,
NC - If the Jacksonville Barracudas hockey team could choose a theme song for the past week, it may just have to be James Taylor’s tune “(Going to) Carolina in my mind” because they seem to be quite happy playing there.
For the second time in seven days, the Barracudas went north and came away with a win, riding the 24 save performance of net minder Tim Haun to a 2-1 victory over the Fayetteville FireAntz. The win sets up a winner-take-all game three back in Jacksonville on Monday night for the right to play in the SPHL Finals.
Haun out dueled his counterpart, ‘Antz goalie Chad Collins, to post the victory. One night earlier, Collins had stonewalled the Barracudas in Jacksonville by the same 2-1 count. The road victory also avenged a controversial loss by Jacksonville to Fayetteville at the Crown Coliseum on the final night of the regular season.
Jacksonville coach Rick Allain promised following Friday night’s loss at home that the Barracudas would continue to shoot at will. His team came out firing early, building a 7-1 shot advantage but failing to dent the armor of Collins. The home standing FireAntz closed the gap thanks in part to Jacksonville tempting fate by taking several penalties but the Barracudas’ penalty killing was excellent. The first period ended just as the previous night’s did - scoreless.
The intensity of the game went up several notches seven minutes into the second period. Fayetteville defenseman Dan Pszenyczny tangled with Jacksonville forward Frank Furdero right in front of Collins. Barracudas’ captain Kahlil Thomas came to his teammate’s aid and Collins decided to stick his nose into the scuffle. Collins getting involved brought Haun the length of the ice to challenge his opponent in the nets.
The skirmish seemed to wake up the scorers as at the 8:11 mark, Craig Geerlinks and Shane Wagner combined to set up Geoff Rollins for his second goal of the playoffs to put Jacksonville in front. Fayetteville answered that with a tally by Pszenyczny on a drive from the blue line that seemed to handcuff Haun. FireAntz’ forward Rob Sich took his second penalty of the game at the 11:47 mark and Jacksonville made him pay when Thomas scored twenty seconds into the man advantage to restore the Barracudas’ lead at 2-1.
Jacksonville continued to tempt fate, allowing Fayetteville five minutes of power play time within the first nine minutes of the third period. The defense in front of Haun tightened up and allowed the FireAntz less than a handful of shots on net during that stretch. As time ticked away, Fayetteville applied more and more pressure but was not able to put anything past Haun. Much like the night before with Jacksonville, the FireAntz took a late penalty that derailed the comeback attempt for a bit but even with an extra attacker on in the final minute, they were not able to tie the game.
Once again, Collins was the main reason Fayetteville had a chance to take the game to overtime. He stopped 37 Jacksonville shots on net to go with the 34 saves he made on Friday night at Jacksonville Ice.
Contact the author at
don.money@prohockeynews.com |
|
|
Game
3 |
Fayetteville
2 - Jacksonville
6 |
| by
Don Money - PROHOCKEYNEWS.COM |
Jacksonville
Wins Series 2-1 |
Jacksonville,
FL - Winner take all, do-or-die deciding games in playoff series
are supposed to be filled with drama, last second heroics, the ultimate high of
winning and the crushing low of defeat.
Monday night’s decisive Game three between the defending SPHL champion
Fayetteville FireAntz and the Jacksonville Barracudas had much of that - for one
period at least. In the end, the four point night of Barracudas’ forward Jim
Murphy, the three point effort of Tyrone Garner and the solid goaltending of Tim
Haun were more than enough as Jacksonville walloped Fayetteville 6-3 to advance
to the SPHL finals for the second year in a row. They will meet the winner of
Tuesday night’s deciding game between Knoxville and Columbus.
“Obviously we didn’t expect to score six but they (Fayetteville) were a little
bit short manned missing some key guys,” Jacksonville coach Rick Allain said. “I
thought if we came out and played physical we could wear them down. I thought we
were getting chances right through the whole series so it was only a matter of
time before we did find the back of the net.”
Both teams came out intent on sending a message as well as getting a leg up.
Fayetteville’s Mark Cole nearly gave the FireAntz that advantage, catching the
post with a screaming drive from the point on an early power play. Collins kept
Jacksonville at bay on the Barracudas’ first man advantage, making several
glittering saves. Jacksonville was the first team to put a number on the
scoreboard when on its second power play, Jim Murphy dug the puck out of a huge
scrum in front of Collins and lifted it over the Fayetteville net minder.
“We just ran out of horses. Vele (Tim Velemirovich) played two shifts in two
games. (Lawne) Snyder was out. We just didn’t have the man power to compete,”
Fayetteville coach Tommy Stewart said. “Special teams were the key to this
series and we didn’t get the job done. We just ran out of gas I think.”
The Barracudas seemed to feed off their first period performance and began to
completely take the game over. Collins kept the FireAntz in the game, making a
brilliant save on Kahlil Thomas on a two-on-one break seven minutes into the
second period. Jacksonville’s power play extended the lead at the 11:59 mark
when Craig Geerlinks hit Murphy with a pass to set up a two-on-one with Garner.
Murphy drew the defender and put the puck on Garner’s stick and the goaltender
turned forward did the rest, going top shelf on Collins. Before the period
ended, Frank Furdero continued to make a name for himself, squeezing past a
defender along the boards and sliding a cross ice pass to Chad Swartzentruber
who scorched a slap shot high over Collins’ blocker, giving the Barracudas a 3-0
lead going to the third.
Fayetteville was struggling, having given up three goals and 29 shots to
Jacksonville’s offense over two stanzas while posting just 12 shots of its own.
On this evening, Haun was out dueling Collins and at the same time giving his
team the confidence to continue its all out assault on the visitors.
“The fewer shots you get, the tougher it is to stay in it,” Haun said. “You have
to be ready because you know they’re going to come down and they’ll be pressing.
You just bear down and know that your time will come so you have to be focused
and ready when it does.”
Fayetteville broke Haun’s shutout bid at 7:41 of the third when BJ Stephens fed
Justin Keller for a one time blast from the far circle. What ever hopes the
‘Antz had of staging an epic comeback were dashed in a hail of Jacksonville
goals late in the contest. At 15:42, Thomas took a feed from Chris Rebernik in
the corner and smacked a one-timer past Collins for the ‘Cudas third man
advantage goal of the night. Just 34 seconds later, Garner circled the ‘Antz net
and fed a cross crease pass to Murphy who netted his second of the night. The
barrage was completed 30 seconds later when Murphy and Geoff Rollins cashed in
on a two-on-one break with Rollins scoring his third goal of the playoffs.
Fayetteville’s Matt Moreland scored a short-handed goal and Marc Norrington
added a tally with three seconds remaining to account for the final score.
Allain and his troops won’t have much time to celebrate the victory as they will
be closely watching the events in Knoxville on Tuesday.
“We can’t control who we’re going to play. We’ll obviously watch the
(Knoxville-Columbus) game with keen interest,” he said. “We’ll put together a
plan tomorrow (Tuesday) night after the game and try to start implementing it
Wednesday morning.”
Contact the author at
don.money@prohockeynews.com |
|
|
 |
|
 |
| Power
Play |
17.3%
- 7th |
| Penalty
Killing |
85.1%
- 1st |
| FORWARDS |
| KAHLIL
THOMAS |
30-45-75
(+25) |
| CHRIS
REBERNIK |
32-35-67
(+17) |
| RYAN
WEBB |
27-29-56
(+6) |
| DEFENSEMEN |
| C.
SWARTZENTRUBER |
9-28-37
(+3) |
| ANDREW
MORRIS |
5-18-23
(+12) |
| CRAIG
GEERLINKS |
2-15-17
(+17) |
| GOALTENDERS |
| RYAN
PERSON |
15-14-1
(1 SO)
3.65 GA
.894 PCT |
|
| TIM
HAUN |
13-3-3
(1 SO)
2.45 GA
.920 PCT |
|
|
|
