Knoxville Ice Bears Plow the Louisiana IceGators

Game Summary for 1/29/2010


The weather outside may have been frightful, but inside the Knoxville Civic Coliseum, the Knoxville Ice Bears delighted a hearty crowd to defeat the Louisiana IceGators, 6-2.


The Ice Bears lost against the IceGators in their last meeting on January 2, 2010, and exacted sweet revenge on the struggling new expansion team.


Goalie Chad Collins had 24 saves in his first game as an Ice Bear as the team pelted IceGators goalie, and former Ice Bear, AJ Bucchino with 35 shots on goal.


Bobby Joe Pelkey scored his 13th goal of the season and the first of the first period in an otherwise quiet 20 minutes of play.  


Pelkey again lit the lamp one minute into the second period to make it 2-0 Knoxville. IceGators answered back with an even-strength goal with three minutes left in the period. The Ice Bears gathered in front of Bucchino, sent the puck over the red line for the third Knoxville goal of the night, much to the dismay and disagreement of Bucchino.  Swider quickly quieted the visiting goalie by getting one past him with just 10 seconds left in the second period, bringing the score to 3-1 Knoxville.


The third period produced lots of action, fighting, goals and more fighting.  Louisiana's Karasiewicz scored his second goal of the night.  Ice Bears David Segal started his second fight of the night, setting the stage for the ultimate matchup.  Goalie Chad Collins was pulled from the net and replaced by Andrew Gallant, who came off the bench smack-talking IceGators goalie Bucchino.  


It didn't take long for the goalies to meet center ice and air their differences (see video below).  Both goalies were given game misconduct penalties and sent off the ice to a roaring crowd.  


Collins returned to the net for his first win as an Ice Bear as Knoxville was able to hold onto the lead with two more goals in the third.  The win tonight brings Knoxville's record to 20-12-1 and their streak to five wins in a row.

Game Summary for 1/28/2010

Knoxville Ice Bears: Fire on ice tonight

Date: 01/28/2010

Faster than you can say “snow day,” the Knoxville Ice Bears took the lead against the Fayetteville FireAntz and dominated the game to win their fourth game in a row, 5-4.

Mike Bulawka blasted the puck past the FireAntz goalie Bryan Bridges just 26 seconds into the first period. David Segal followed up 31 seconds later, his sixth goal of the season. Fayetteville made a quick change at net by pulling Bridges and putting in Guy St. Vincent, who faced 12 shots on goal.  Craig Geerlinks scored the only FireAntz goal of the period, ending it 2-1 Knoxville.

The second period was packed with penalties, ten to be exact, but neither team was able to capitalize on the advantage. In his first game back from a shoulder injury, Ice Bears enforcer David Segal faced off against FireAntz Dan McNeill not once, but twice. Travis Hanson had back-to-back goals. In just 37 seconds, he doubled the number of goals he had scored this season, to make the score 4-1 Knoxville at the end of the second period.

Knoxville’s Taylor Hustead found the back of the net for his fifteenth goal of the season and the first of the third period. Fayetteville mounted a comeback effort with three goals, including a 6-on-4 attack during an Ice Bears’ penalty kill. However, it wasn’t enough to squash the Ice Bears’ lead.

Hit heard around the rink

I hope you had a chance to attend at least one of the Knoxville Ice Bears games this weekend against the Huntsville Havoc, current league leaders.

The Ice Bears won both nights with big numbers from Tim Vitek, Frank Furdero, Mark Van Vliet, Donald Melnyk and especially goalie Andrew Gallant.  Even the new guy, Mike Kneeland, scored- his first goal as an Ice Bear and his first goal of the season.  It was a great weekend for hockey in Knoxville.

One of my favorite aspects of the game are the hits- and boy, there were some BIG hits on Saturday.  One of them was so hard, it knocked the piping off the glass just behind the goal on the zamboni side of the rink.  Here is a photo of the wonderful Coliseum staff trying to fix the glass during a break in the action.

The Ice Bears have two games this week- on Thursday (against Fayetteville FireAntz) and Friday (against Louisiana Ice Gators), so make plans to attend a game.  Thursday is "Two"riffic Thursday with $2 hot dogs, $2 drinks and $2 popcorn.

Player transactions:
Goalie Dan Earles was waived from the Ice Bears.
Goalie Chad Collins signed a contract with the Ice Bears.

When stats go wrong

One of the tasks I get to do during an Ice Bears game is run stats.  I should clarify.  I print off stats from Pointstreak.com during intermission and briskly walk them to both locker rooms and any media on hand.  Running stats sounds much more important, doesn't it?

I've run stats during every home game this year except one, without problem.  Until last night.

Everything was going great, so I felt safe in thinking to myself, "Hey, self, what a calm night.  I might be able to watch some of the game.  Cool."

Yea, I know.  I should have known better.

So, I head up to the office just before the end of the second period to run stats only to discover Pointstreak isn't updating as fast as normal.  I spent the next 20 minutes refreshing the website, only to realize things aren't looking good or correct.

For the first time this season, I couldn't distribute stats to the teams.  #FAIL.

Oh, well.  Not the end of the world.  Except without correct stats, I can't write the post-game summary.  And since I watch, oh, five minutes of the game, I have no idea what has happened on the ice.

As the game nears the end, I head back up to the office, hoping and praying Pointstreak.com is working. I hit refresh, and, yee-haw.  FINAL game stats.  Hit print and take off.  Whew!

Visiting team. Check.  Media. Check. Ice Bears. Check. Ref. Problem.  Apparently all of the second period was wrong in the stat sheet.  Six penalties were missing and two goals were scored at the same time- one by each team.

The ref and news reporter were able to straighten it all out.  Finally.

What a crazy night.  I wouldn't trade it for the world.  I love, love, love working the games and hanging out with the coolest hockey fans around.

Want to give blood like a hockey player?

Want to give blood like a hockey player?  Then join the Knoxville Ice Bears as they team up with The Sports Animal for their annual blood drive at the Medic Regional Blood Bank on Tuesday, February 9, 2010.

Knoxville Ice Bears players and mascot Chilly will be on hand from 2-6 p.m. on February 9, to sign autographs and take photographs while The Sports Animal broadcasts live from Medic Regional Blood Bank, located at 1601 Ailor Avenue.

Everyone who donates blood during the event will receive a free Knoxville Ice Bears silver flex ticket which can be redeemed for a silver-level ticket at the Knoxville Civic Coliseum before any regular season home game.

Medic Regional Blood Center is the only blood collector and supplier for all eight Knoxville Hospitals and for 20 other hospitals in 21 counties in East Tennessee and Southeast Kentucky.

# # #