Knoxville Ice Bears

Ice Bears Fall to RiverHawks 5-3

date: 12/03/2010

Ice Bears Fall to RiverHawks 5 - 3

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Knoxville, TN - It was a fight to the finish tonight in the Civic Coliseum where the Knoxville Ice Bears challenged the Augusta RiverHawks. The Ice Bears hoped to continue with a winning weekend, but two goals late in the third period weren't enough to catch up to Augusta. The RiverHawks left the ice with a 5-3 win over Knoxville.

After an exciting shut-out against Mississippi Thursday night, the Ice Bears were ready to face the RiverHawks (7-7) on home ice. August pulled ahead early when Lucas LaBelle slid the puck past Knoxville goalie Bryan Hince for a power play goal just 1:11 into the first period.

Ice Bears Captain Mike Bulawka made sure that Knoxville (6-8) wouldn't see a scoreless first period and tied the game with a pass from Chris Bratina with 2:11 left in the period.

Hince blocked shots from all angles at a crowded net throughout the second period, but the RiverHawks claimed the lead again when Egor Mironov shuffled the puck into the net to reclaim the lead. The second period ended with Augusta leading 2-1.

Augusta grabbed another early goal just 1:29 into the third period scored by newly signed RiverHawk, Drew Baker. Augusta followed the point with another score just over 11 minutes later in the period bringing their lead to 4-1.

The Ice Bears took advantage of a power play and Frank Furdero moved a shot from Mike Tuomi and Ryan Ramage past the SPHL's No. 2 goalie Jordan McLaughlin to move the game to 4-2.

The Ice Bears pulled Hince from the goal to add a sixth skater and Jason Weeks moved the puck down the ice for an unassisted empty netter, widening the gap to 5-2.

The Ice Bears played hard to the end of the third period to match the RiverHawks score. Bratina took a pass from Rob Campbell and scored the last goal of the game with only 32 seconds of play left. Their efforts weren't enough to wrangle the RiverHawks and Knoxville heads to Pensacola tomorrow with a 1-1 record for the weekend. The game will broadcast live on ESPN Radio 1180.

The Ice Bears will return to home ice on December 18 at 7:30 p.m. in the Civic Coliseum for Guaranteed Fight Night. Come watch the Ice Bears take on the Louisiana Ice Gators for the first time this season and stay after the game for the special "Puck Cancer" jersey auction.

Mercedes-Benz 3 Stars of the Game:
1st Star: Drew Baker (Augusta)
2nd Star: Jason Weeks (Augusta)
3rd Star: Chris Bratina (Knoxville)

 

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