Columbus Cottonmouths look to climb out of SPHL cellar
Snakes host Knoxville at Civic Center tonight
By MATTHEW HESTER
sports@ledger-enquirer.com
The Columbus Cottonmouths remain confident they can exit from the SPHL's basement.
Twelve games into the season, the Snakes have won just three times and have nine points. They are tied for eighth with Macon in the nine-team SPHL.
"The mind is probably the weakest muscle in the human body," Columbus coach Jerome Bechard said. "Our shortage of wins isn't from lack of effort -- just need to become a more confident cohesive unit."
Following an inauspicious 0-4-3 start, Columbus rallied to win three of its next four before last Friday's crushing 5-0 loss to Louisiana. Two of those three wins came against Friday's opponent, defending SPHL champion Knoxville. The other win came against Saturday's opponent, Macon, so this weekend could jumpstart the season.
"If we have a full lineup, I know we can skate with the top teams in this league," Bechard said. "Against Louisiana we had two of our better players off the ice but still managed to put up 40 shots."
Through the first month of play, the Snakes' roster has undergone a bevy of moves. Without leading points-scorer Louis Belisle and defenseman Andy Willigar, against Louisiana, Columbus suffered its largest defeat of the season. Belisle was loaned to the South Carolina Stingrays of the ECHL, while Willigar missed the first of two games due to a league suspension.
Adding injury to insult, Chris Rial and Andrew Chapman were both placed on 30-day IR last week.
In hopes of providing leadership. Columbus re-signed Levi Lind. In 305 career games, all with Columbus, Lind totaled 164 points, including 56 goals. Bechard may have to consider coax
ing Levi into sticking around longer than expected.
"It is difficult finding leadership outside the family," Bechard said. "League restrictions make our search narrow. We're fortunate to have a guy like Levi just sitting around."
With a league-high goal differential of minus-18, the Cottonmouths are allowing four goals per game. Still in search of her first win this season, starting goaltender Shannon Szabados currently ranks last in the SPHL in goal against average (4.36). After allowing five goals in 36 minutes of play against Louisiana, she was pulled in last Friday's loss.
In the meantime, back-up Brandon Jaeger has won three of his five starts allowing one-goal less on average per game.
Ultimately the easy target would be to point fingers at the goaltending, but the coaching staff is adamant that's not the case.
"We've spent a lot of practice time fine-tuning our D-zone," Bechard said.
"We need to re-establish Shannon's confidence, and the main way to do that is to become more physical and assertive in front of her."
This story was originally published December 3, 2015 at 10:38 PM with the headline "Columbus Cottonmouths look to climb out of SPHL cellar ."