Cottonmouths fall 6-3 to Pensacola

The Columbus Cottonmouths were trying on Sunday afternoon to do something they had failed to do all season: win consecutive games.

In their third game in three days, the hope was they could outwork the Pensacola Ice Flyers, also playing their third game in three days, with the home ice advantage.

The Ice Flyers had other ideas, doubling up the Snakes 6-3 before 1,836 at the Columbus Civic Center.

The Snakes succeeded in some of the same ways they did the night before in a 4-3 overtime win over Roanoke. They outworked the Ice Flyers in the beginning of the game and had several scoring chances in the Pensacola zone.

“Pensacola is a different hockey team,” said Snakes head coach Jerome Bechard. “They’re bigger, stronger, and a little faster than Roanoke. The gameplan was a little of the same, to make sure we got the puck in and had a good forecheck going. I think we did that, even though Pensacola outshot us in the game. We did what we needed to do for the most part in the first period, and we got a hungry, dirty power play goal.”

Forward Craig Simchuk cashed in on the first Pensacola penalty of the game 15 seconds into the ensuing power play, beating Ice Flyers goaltender John McLean to put Columbus up 1-0.

After the first period, however, the Snakes went back to the bad habits that have stuck them in the SPHL standings basement for the better part of the past two months.

“After we had the first goal, we stopped doing what we were supposed to do as far as keeping it simple, getting the good chips and dumps, and forechecking,” Bechard said. “We started turning the puck over, giving them opportunities, and that was it.”

Pensacola poured it on the Snakes in the second period with four goals on 10 shots, overwhelming goaltender Spencer Bacon. While Bacon was celebrating his birthday with a start between the pipes for the Cottonmouths, he allowed six goals in his second straight appearance. Bacon also gave up six in the Snakes’ Friday night road loss at Knoxville.

“I think he’d probably like to have a couple of them back, even though some were screened shots,” Bechard said. “The actual problem was the turnovers.

“We kept shooting ourselves in the foot. We crumble, and then everyone wants to do more and do it themselves. I told them it doesn’t work that way. They saw how it worked (Saturday night) when you play together and attack as a unit.”

Pensacola improved to 3-3-4 on the road, with all three of those wins coming in Columbus.

Now, the Cottonmouths turn their attention to the Peoria Rivermen. The Snakes head to Illinois this weekend for a back-to-back set of games on Friday and Saturday nights. After this week, Columbus will host six of its next seven games.

“It’ll be a good push,” Bechard said. “We need to go up to Peoria with a good frame of mind. We can beat them, but we definitely need to split for sure. We need to be physical and stick to the gameplan and bring that edigness to them. They’re not going to scrap, they’re not going to fight, but we need to bring that edge and physical play to them.”

In roster news, forward Vadim Guskov suffered an upper-body injury in Sunday’s game and likely will be out for multiple games. Bechard again will have to shuffle the lineup ahead of the Peoria trip.

“With Guskov getting injured tonight, Ben Bauer could be available to play this weekend,” Bechard said. “Guskov will probably be on the (injured reserve), which leaves me with one extra guy that we have to figure something out with.

“At the same time, I’m not happy where were at, and if there’s a move that will make us a better hockey team, that’s always a possibility.”

Sunday at Columbus Civic Center

This story was originally published January 16, 2017 at 12:33 AM with the headline "Cottonmouths fall 6-3 to Pensacola."