Disney on Ice sends Snakes playoff game to Columbus
Despite being the lower seed, the Columbus Cottonmouths will be the home team in the first round of the Southern Professional Hockey League playoffs.
A scheduling conflict — Disney on Ice — at the Macon Mayhem’s home Macon Centreplex has forced the best-of-three series to the Columbus Civic Center. Games 1 and 2 will be Tuesday and Wednesday, respectively, with a potential Game 3 on Thursday. The puck drops at 7:30 p.m. each night.
The scheduling conflict in Macon was booked prior to the Mayhem moving to the city from Augusta, Ga., the team said through its social media channels on Saturday.
Ideally, the games would be scheduled for the upcoming weekend, but Cascade Hills Church has reserved the Civic Center this weekend for its Easter service.
The Cottonmouths clinched the eighth and final seed in the playoffs by virtue of a 6-5 shootout win over the Evansville Thunderbolts on Friday night. They finished the season at 22-30-4, five points clear of ninth-place Roanoke and 10 ahead of the last-place ‘Bolts.
On the other side of the ledger, the Mayhem clinched the regular-season championship, finishing with a 37-13-6 record. It is the first hockey championship of any kind for the city. The Macon Trax advanced to the SPHL championship series against Columbus in 2005, but the Cottonmouths took the first of their two league titles in that series, also winning in 2012.
The two teams have played each other evenly during the season. Columbus has a 4-3-1 record against the Mayhem this year, with six of the eight games decided by just one goal, three of those going to overtime. The other two games have been a decisive victory by each side: a 5-1 Macon win on Nov. 26 and a 7-2 Columbus victory in the last game between the two teams on Mar. 18.
Cottonmouth in the NHL
In other Columbus hockey news, former Cottonmouth player Peter MacDougall made his NHL debut as an on-ice official Saturday night. MacDougall was one of the two referees as the Dallas Stars hosted the Colorado Avalanche. He played in 80 professional games over two seasons with the Snakes, picking up 13 goals and 18 assists from 2010 to 2012. He was a member of the Cottonmouths’ last championship team in 2012, logging a goal and four assists in six games during that run. MacDougall began officiating in the SPHL the next season, ascending through the ECHL and American Hockey League ranks to his current position in the NHL.
This story was originally published April 9, 2017 at 8:12 PM with the headline "Disney on Ice sends Snakes playoff game to Columbus."