For immediate release
For more information, contact: Joel Silverberg, Director of Broadcasting (865) 525-7825, joel@knoxvilleicebears.com.
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — The Knoxville Ice Bears withstood a furious rally from the Macon Mayhem to hang on for a 4-3 win at the Knoxville Civic Coliseum Thursday night. The Ice Bears have won five straight games and leap into first place in the SPHL standings with the win.
Davide Gaeta opened the scoring just 57 seconds into the game when Cam Tobey fired a pass from the left point to the back doorstep and Gaeta turned the puck on net behind Dominic Basse for his sixth goal of the season.
Macon threatened to tie the game halfway through the first, but Stephen Mundinger blocked Brandon Stojcevski’s wrist shot from the slot. He later blocked Artem Pugachev as he was sweeping across the front of the crease and kicked away Mason Hoehn’s rebound with his left pad.
The Ice Bears added to their lead when Jianing Guo raced to keep the puck in the Macon zone at the left point and pushed it up the wall to Gaeta. Gaeta twirled through the right circle and lifted a backhand that bounced off of Basse and Kolten Olynek put back the rebound at 17:38.
After a high-sticking double minor on Stojcevski, Knoxville cashed in with back-to-back power play goals to open up a 4-0 lead in the second. Tim Kent scored on a drag shot from the slot at 4:15 and Ranon Joseph snuck a wrist shot from the perimeter past Basse a minute later. The fourth goal ended Basse’s night and he was replaced by Josh Boyko. Basse finished with 14 saves.
Savva Smirnov and Michael Krupinski scored 13 seconds apart to cut Knoxville’s lead in half midway though the second. Smirnov took an errant pass on a breakaway and slipped his backhand past Mundinger’s blocker while Krupinski intercepted the puck in the neutral zone and scored from the right circle.
Mundinger helped keep the Ice Bears ahead by a pair at the intermission by stopping Mike Herrera’s wrist shot from the left circle and squeezing Matt Carlson scoring chance from the slot.
Bohdan Zinchenko scored from the left circle at 3:44 of the third to make it a one goal game.
Macon pulled Boyko for an opportunity to tie the game, but Mundinger stopped Smirnov’s quick strike attempt from the right circle and the Mayhem never threatened again in the final minute. Mundinger finished with 38 saves. Boyko stopped all 17 shots he faced.
Knoxville heads to Birmingham Friday night. The Mayhem are in Huntsville on Friday.
ABOUT The Knoxville Ice Bears: The Knoxville Ice Bears organization began in 2002 and was an inaugural charter member of the Southern Professional Hockey League (SPHL) in 2004. As four-time SPHL Champions and five-time regular season champions, the Ice Bears are an experienced and established organization, offering the city and its visitors a balanced product of highlight-reel hockey, unique and exciting intermission activity and endless fan interaction, presenting the most affordable, family-friendly way to enjoy sports and entertainment. Season, Partial Season and Flex Tickets are now on sale. For more information, visit www.knoxvilleicebears.com or call (865) 525-7825.
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