PENSACOLA, FLA. – Playing with a roster quickly rearranged, plus two players short in the lineup, the Ice Flyers still gave themselves a chance Wednesday night against the league’s first place team. 
The effort in the Ice Flyers 3-2 loss against the Huntsville Havoc, amid a sellout crowd on $5 ticket night at the Pensacola Bay Center, provided encouragement for the immediate future.
“I really loved our effort and the total buy-in,” said Ice Flyers coach Gary Graham. “We had 14 skaters (Wednesday). A very difficult lineup to play against a veteran, seasoned, deep team, like Huntsville. And I thought they all bought in and did a good job.
“We had three new forwards in that literally just came in the last 24 hours and we were playing with five defensemen. We generated a ton of scoring chances, enough to win the game.”
After a scoreless first period, the Havoc scored the game’s first goal in the first minute of the second period. The Ice Flyers answered with Cory Dennis scoring late in the period to make it 1-1 entering the final period.
Huntsville took a 3-1 lead in the third period, but Ivan Bondarenko’s goal with 7:06 left re-energized the arena. The Ice Flyers pulled goaltender Kevin Resop with 1:38 left and had a scoring chance in the final minute that was thwarted by Havoc goaltender Brian Wilson, who stopped 33 shots in the game.
“Overall, I can’t believe I’m saying this (with team) in dead last (in standings), but I actually really enjoyed watching (his team) Friday,” Graham said. “They competed they bought in.”
Now, the challenge is to find success.
The Ice Flyers will spend Thanksgiving Day together in Pensacola, then leave early Friday morning for a five-to-six-hour bus trip to Macon, Georgia to face the Macon Mayhem. The Mayhem are six points ahead of the Ice Flyers in the bottom of the SPHL standings.
After that game, it’s back to Pensacola for the second $5 night Saturday against the Birmingham Bulls. It promises to have another packed arena like Friday.
“What a great first impression for the three new guys to see how this place could be rocking,” Graham said. “It’s just disappointing for our fan base to not get a win. That falls on my shoulders first and foremost.
“But we’re doing everything we can behind the scenes to improve the roster, improve our team. Bailey (Walker) is working her tail off as (team) trainer to get these guys (on injured list) back and healthy, so I am very optimistic about the future here, even though it looks pretty gloomy right now.
“But you don’t miss or make the playoffs in November. There’s a lot of season left. What we need to do is get this group healthy, come together and start finding the right way to win hockey games and I think (Wednesday) was a step in the right direction.”
FIRST PERIOD
A scoreless first period was not without scoring chances. The Ice Flyers created more, aided by the only power play of the period, leading to a 16-10 edge in shots over the Havoc.
The Ice Flyers got their first shot on goal with just inside four minutes expired. A minute, Shane Bull got a close range shot that Havoc goaltender Wilson thwarted.
Later in the period, Greg Smith and Cayden Cahill were inside the faceoff circle range but turned away. But the nearest goal occurred while the Ice Flyers were on a power play, after Havoc enforcer Cole Reginato was whistled for slashing with 5:59 left.
Sam Dabrowski rifled a wrist shot the clanged off the crossbar loud enough to echo, but no goal celebration ensued.
SECOND PERIOD
The period began in a deflating way for the Ice Flyers. But it ended well.
Only 44 seconds into the period, the Havoc scored the game’s first goal when Matt Allen got a perfect pass from Jack Jaunich on a 2-on-1 rush, then skated across the crease end, deking goaltender Kevin Resop and sliding the puck with a backhand flick easily into a wide opening in the net.
The Ice Flyers were then faced with a two-man disadvantage when Tim Faulkner’s hooking penalty with 11:53 left in the period to stop a wide open look at the net was followed 24 seconds later by Cayden Cahill being whistled for slashing.
This game Huntsville a 5-on-3 situation for more than 90 seconds. The Ice Flyers penalty kill unit, along with Resop was outstanding in this stretch to keep the game at 1-0.
That jolt of emotion was followed in a good way when Cory Dennis received a pass from Greg Smith on a 2-on-1 rush, waited a second to pull the trigger between the faceoff circles and rifled a wrister into the top corner of the net to the game with 3:02 remaining.
THIRD PERIOD
With Greg Smith in the penalty box, the Havoc had a chance go awry with a shot hitting the goal post.
But the Havoc then got a go-ahead, even-strength goal with 12:57 left when Jack Jaunich scored the first of his two goals with a one-timer he blasted past Resop.
On his next shift on the ice, Jaunich took advantage of a turnover and got past and Ice Flyers defense to punch in a goal inside the post was skating in the crease area.
That 3-1 lead was trimmed on Bondarenko’s goal, which came off a face off and pass from Dennis.
GAME NOTABLES
The ceremonial puck drop was made by Will Murray, general sales manager for Kia Autosport-Pensacola, the game’s sponsor of the $5 ticket night.
Professional golf star Bubba Watson, two-time Masters winner, was attired in an Ice Flyers jersey as he joined with children in the home team tunnel to bang the drum prior to the third period, which got the crowd involved.
Fans can bid on autographed goal pucks from tonight’s game on Dash.
By Bill Vilona, Ice Flyers.com Correspondent
