May 2, 2003
The State
Nat Newell
COLUMBIA -- The Southern Conference championship trophy is a
tarnished
and dented silver cup that sits on a chipped and worn wooden base. The small
plaques for each title date back to 1998, and it's only distinctive feature is
the
inscription KAZ '02 scratched into the lid.
It was presented to the Columbia Inferno following Friday's 4-2
victory over
Mississippi. . .well, it would have been presented to its new owner if any of
the players would have touched it.
"It's kind of a traditional thing," coach Scott White
said after his team had won
Game 6 to clinch this best-of-seven series, 4-2, in front of 2,451 fans.
"You
don't touch the conference trophy. The league doesn't like the tradition. . .but
so what. I only care what we think and it shows this team is extremely
focused."
After the Inferno saluted their fans, the 2-foot-tall trophy was
left on a table set
up a center ice, and team official Wendy Hennessy had to carry it to the Inferno
offices in the bowels of the Carolina Coliseum. It was left on a bookcase--alone
and out of view--while the party filled the rest of this old building.
No one was celebrating the Southern Conference championship. The
cheers
and tears (and beers) were for the opportunity to play for the Kelly Cup.
"That's not the cup we're after," Inferno center
Rejean Stringer said. "We're
after the big one. We're happy we got it done, but that's not the one we're
looking for so we don't want it."
Columbia will face Atlantic City or Cincinnati at the Coliseum
on Wednesday
at 7:05 p.m. in Game 1 of the best-of-seven series for the East Coast Hockey
League's biggest prize. Cincinnati won its third straight Friday, 4-3, to send
the
Northern Conference finals to Game 7 in Atlantic City at 7:35 tonight.
Mississippi was on the verge of pulling off the same feat as the
Inferno clung to
a 3-2 lead late in the third period. The Sea Wolves had scored all three times
they pulled goalie Greg Gardner in the series, tying Game 5 with 64 seconds left
thanks to its extra skater before winning in overtime.
But Chris Pittman carried the puck into Mississippi's end,
shrugged off a defender
and slid the puck past Gardner's right skate and into the corner of the net. The
Sea Wolves' goalie, spectacular throughout the series, slumped to the ice,
dropping
his head to his knees.
"That was the biggest goal of the year," Stringer
said. "We knew they'd been
successful every time they pulled their goalie so when Pitter scored it was a
complete
relief."
The pressure had shifted to Columbia for Friday's game after a
pair of losses in
Biloxi, MS, snapped a nine-game playoff winning streak. The Inferno came out
listless,
and Sergei Kuznetsov scored a power-play goal 5:50 in for a 1-0 Mississippi
lead.
Less than two minutes later, however, a controversial contact
with the goalie call
sent Shawn Wansborough to the penalty box and brought Columbia back into the
game.
"That was a momentum switch," Stringer said of the
energy boost from the energy
boost from the angry reaction of the crowd at the call. "The first 10-12
minutes we
were awful. We were nervous. We were tense. We had a little pressure on us. But
Wansie took that penalty and we realized, 'We got to get it going.'
"We took it to them after that."
Sean Owens found a chink in Gardner's armor by sneaking a shot
between his pads
off a rebound of a Pittman shot with 3:37 remaining. Darrell Hay buried a pass
from
Stringer over Gardner's right shoulder from the left point with 14:35 remaining
in the
second period.
Hay found Tim Smith less than three minutes later at the edge of
the net, and the
Inferno rookie snuck a shot between Gardner's skate and the right post for the
game-
winner.
"Smitty made a great play coming out from behind the
net," Hay said. "They've been
pressuring us out high with their defensemen and anytime you can have that
relief
valve to throw it to (it's key). Smitty was all alone and made the right
play."
Mississippi closed to within a goal as Mike Scott scored on the
power play with
2:27 remaining in the second period, but Pittman's insurance goal brought the
least
respected trophy in sports to the Inferno in their second season.
"We're thrilled and we're going to enjoy this but there are
four more (victories)
to go," White said. "That's the team's goal. That's the focus we have
in the locker
room right now."