Cottonmouths’ late rally not enough in loss to Ice Bears

The Columbus Cottonmouths scored twice in the final four minutes, but it wasn’t enough as the Snakes lost 4-3 to Knoxville on Saturday night at the Columbus Civic Center.

For the second straight game, the Snakes gave up four goals in the second period. They lost 4-2 to Fayetteville on Friday.

With the loss and Louisiana’s win, the Snakes are now six points behind in the race for the eighth and final playoff berth in the SPHL. Columbus is seven points back of seventh-place Macon.

Columbus has five games remaining, while Louisiana has four and Macon three. Both Macon (Friday) and Louisiana (Saturday) visit Columbus next weekend.

“We’re running out of time,” Columbus coach Jerome Bechard said. “Hopefully, we can get some help, but it’s definitely on us next weekend to take care of business.”

Columbus’ Kyle Shapiro scored the opening goal — 4:52 into the first period — giving the Snakes the early 1-0 advantage.

The Cottonmouths carried that 1-0 lead into the second period when Knoxville scored four times, starting with Mark Pustin scoring off a rebound. Less than a minute later, John Clewlow scored following a cross ice assist from Garrett Vermeersch.

Vermeersch notched his second point of the contest, scoring Knoxville’s third goal. And with 25 seconds remaining in the period, Adam Sedlak landed the fourth and eventual game-winner.

“It’s been the same story, preaching no highs and no lows,” Bechard said. “Soon as they scored that first goal I could feel our bench get deflated.”

The score stayed that way until late in the final period. Columbus made its comeback bid beginning with an unassisted Levi Lind goal at 16:38. Then aided by an extra-attacker, at the 19:05 mark, Andy Bathgate batted the puck through some heavy traffic in front of the net making it a one-goal game.

“Bottom line is we played the last five minutes of the third period a whole lot different from the rest of the game,” Bechard said. “I’ve told the guys that I just don’t see why we can’t match that intensity for the entire 60 minutes.”

With the roster seemingly changing each week, either due to call-ups or injuries, the Snakes made some last minute rosters adjustments prior to Saturday night’s game. The return of forward Shawn Bates lasted for only one game with Bates returning to the ECHL, this time with the Tulsa Oilers.

Just as one goes, another returns. Patrick McCadden rejoined the Cottonmouths Saturday night from the ranks of the ECHL. They also re-signed forward Dylen McKinlay and signed defenseman Patrick Murphy.

“We have a bunch of guys that are banged up and probably playing when they shouldn’t be,” Bechard said. “They’re giving me everything they got, but at the end of the day it may not be good enough.”

This story was originally published March 26, 2016 at 11:31 PM with the headline "Cottonmouths’ late rally not enough in loss to Ice Bears."