Sports - Mississippi Surge

Saturday, Oct. 24, 2009

Surge win home opener, improve to 2-0

BILOXI — There was plenty of electricity in the air at the Mississippi Coast Coliseum as the Mississippi Surge beat Louisiana 4-2 with some stingy defense and plenty of physical play.

“The crowd was really into the game tonight, it sure played a big part in our team’s effort,” said Surge coach Steffon Walby. “The fans are a big part of our team and our players saw that.”

The 2-0 Surge, coming off a opening night 3-2 victory over Louisiana on Thursday, opened Southern Professional Hockey League play at the Mississippi Coast Coliseum before a crowd of 3,514.

The Surge scored their first home goal in the brief history of the franchise when Tim Velemirovich tapped in a pass on a power play from Greg McCauley from just left of center to give Mississippi a 1-0 lead with 16:14 remaining in second period.

Mississippi added to the lead with 7:43 left in the second period when Michael Richard banged in a goal on a power play with an assist from Chris Ferazzoli and Shane Wagner to increase the Surge advantage to 2-0.

Surge tough guys Ryan Bartle and Steve Weidlich gave the fans plenty to cheer about with some rough house hockey that saw the partisan crowd scream for more in two separate fisticuffs.

“There is good chemistry with this team,” said Weidlich. “We have worked real hard the last few weeks and it has paid off with these two wins, we want more to come for the fans.”

The 0-2 Ice Gators, came back late in the second period when Mike Omiciooli found the net on a power play that was followed by a goal by Frank Littlejohn to tie the game at 2-2.

Matt Zultek scored the go ahead goal for Mississippi with 10:49 left in the third period off of a pass from Chris Greene.

Velemirovich quickly followed with game clincher a minute later to give the Surge their win.