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Ice Flyers Struggling Start Leads Into 4-3 Loss Against Birmingham
January 4, 2025
by Bill Vilona Ice Flyers correspondent
The margin for error with this Ice Flyers team offers little wiggle room.
The first 12 minutes of Friday’s 4-3 loss against the Birmingham Bulls again reinforced the importance.
After following behind 4-1 in that opening period stretch, the Ice Flyers (6-17, plus 3 OT losses) turned things around and gave themselves the final 30 minutes to get a tying goal that never happened.
All of this in front of a huge crowd of 6,242 at the Pensacola Bay Center only raised the frustration with Ice Flyers coach Gary Graham, whose patience has naturally worn thin. His team has now lost four of the past six games decided by one goal.
“We had a great second and third period. We probably had some goals that we should have scored on that would have made our life a little bit easier,” Graham said. “The effort was there in the second and third period. But you can’t win a hockey game playing 40 minutes.
“We’re not a team that can cut corners at all,” he said. “Very good hockey team can cut some corners with goaltending and with special teams.
“(And) with their top scorers you can count on to score big goals in critical moments. We are not that team. We haven’t been that team the entire season. We have to win tight games, that’s way it’s been the whole season.”
Despite an energized crowd that filled two thirds of the arena on “Cars Night” – complete with the Ice Flyers wearing specialty jerseys in theme for the popular Disney produced television series – the Ice Flyers struggled from the outset.
The Bulls (12-9, 3 OT losses) scored four goals on the first nine shots, including back-to-back goals in a 1-minute, 21 second span. They later clanged two consecutive shots off the goal posts that would have made it a 5-1 lead.
Three of their goals came with wide open nets that gave Ice Flyers goaltender Brody Claeys no chance at a miracle save. But after the Bulls took a 4-1 lead with 8:55 remaining in the period, he stop the remaining 16 shots he faced in the game.
“I thought it was probably the worst period of hockey from our forward group in a long time,” Graham said. “The puck management, the lack of effort on the back check, was disgusting.
“If I’m the goalie and I’m seeing that kind of action, I’m probably going to fight a teammate in the locker room. It was that gross.
“And what’s disturbing is that we have been playing pretty good defensively… that hasn’t been our problem so whatever it was, the guys weren’t dialed in, we weren’t executing a game plan.”
The game changed with 1:56 left in the period when the Ice Flyers Sam Dabrowski made a perfect deke in a one-on-one move against a Bulls defenseman and rifled a shot past Bulls goalie Austin Lotz.
The Ice Flyers then got a second period goal from Jonathan Bartuccio-Pereira, who also assisted on Dabrowski’s goal. With 8:42 left before the second intermission, a potential blowout was now a one-game game.
But it stayed that way. Lotz came up big. He finished stopping 40 shots in a game where the Ice Flyers had a 43-25 edge in shots on goal, much like they’ve had in most games this season.
The Ice Flyers will near midpoint of their schedule on Saturday when traveling to Birmingham for the weekend rematch in at the Bulls’ Pelham Arena.
“You hope that everybody can buy in for 60 minutes,” Graham said. “The top guys have to be bought in. We had countless turnovers (Friday from key top players. Your best guys have to be your lead guys.”
Here is a recap
FIRST PERIOD
Four different Bulls plays scored in the first 12 minutes to build the big lead. The first Birmingham goal occurred on the game’s first power play chance, just 3:17 into the period.
But the Ice Flyers Cayden Cahill gave the crowd a chance for a goal celebration dance when he deflected a shot past Lotz just 42 seconds later.
And then, the bottom fell out for the Ice Flyers when Birmingham scored three consecutive goals.
“It was the grossest we have played defensively,” Graham said.
Dobrowski’s goal, however, provided a positive moment before intermission that carried into the second period.
“It was a good goal and individual effort by Sam,” Graham said. “We were talking about trying to get another goal before the end of the period and he goes out and makes a heck of an individual play. But you’re still not positive in the locker room (at intermission) after that.”
SECOND PERIOD
The only scoring occurred when Bartuccio-Pereira rifled a wrist shot from inside the blue line into the cage. That goal with 8:42 left was followed by several other chances in the final minutes of the period.
“Tip your hat to Birmingham,” Graham said. “They had some injuries and callups this week. They had a very predictable, simple gameplan. They all bought in. They got an early lead and took us too long to get going.”
THIRD PERIOD
No scoring. But the Ice Flyers out shot Birmingham 19-5 and dominated scoring chances. But Lotz came up big.
The Ice Flyers pulled Claeys with about 90 seconds remaining. Adam Pilotte had a chance on a one-timer with 1:02 left that Lotz smothered.
A couple opportunities followed.
“You dig yourself a hole like that, they have a veteran goalie, a goalie that is very confident,” Graham said. “I thought our best chance to tie the game was in the second period.”
WHAT’S NEXT?
WHO: Ice Flyers at Birmingham Bulls
WHEN: Saturday, 7:05 p.m.
WHERE: Pelham Civic Complex, Pelham, Ala.
Comments
One Response to “Ice Flyers Struggling Start Leads Into 4-3 Loss Against Birmingham”
3 championship seasons are the reason why fans continue to follow and support our Ice Flyers. That accomplishment is unmatched by any precious or current area team. Local politians have diligently worked to eliminate hockey from the civic center but the community has spoken and the attendance, actual attendance numbers, not tickets sold with empty seats, is proof of how popular the Ice Flyers are, even in a dismal season.