BATON ROUGE, La. � The Mississippi Sea Wolves officially earned a playoff berth by dropping Baton Rouge, 8-1 at the Riverside Centroplex.
The Sea Wolves move into sole possession of second place in the Southwest Division with 70 points, just two points behind Louisiana for first.
Mississippi also added two more points in the battle for the Coca-Cola Cup, extending the lead over Baton Rouge, 16 points to 2. The Sea Wolves will be presented with the inaugural Coca-Cola Cup in the final game of the season series on March 25 at the Mississippi Coast Coliseum.
The Sea Wolves (33-20-4) opened the score with the man advantage at 9:43. Rookie Kent Davyduke tallied his 17th of the season snapping a shot from the right circle past Niklas Sundberg.
Mississippi built up a 2-0 lead at 14:05. Rookie Stu Pietersma unleashed a shot over the left shoulder of Sundberg. The goal was the third of the campaign for Pietersma.
Pietersma also dropped the gloves twice in the opening period, handling both Tom Kaiman and Garnet Jacobson. Pietersma extends his lead for fighting majors in the East Coast Hockey League with 30. He is also just one shy of tying the Sea Wolves single-season record of 31, set by Kevin Evans in 1996-97.
Later in the first, Mississippi continued to convert on the power play. Rookie Mike Scott buried in front, for his 17th of the season, making it 3-0.
In the second, the Sea Wolves kept pouring it on by capitalizing on another man advantage. Sergei Kuznetsov slammed home a rebound, beating Jeff Blair, who took over from Sundberg to start the middle stanza. The goal was Kuznetsov�s seventh of the year.
Mississippi made it 5-0 at the 2:53 mark. Darryl Campbell scored his 11th of the season.
Then at 8:29, Campbell moved in on the penalty kill and netted his second of the contest, giving the Sea Wolves a commanding 6-0 lead.
Baton Rouge (15-33-9) finally solved Mississippi goaltender Greg Gardner at 15:23 of the second. Chris Bell tallied his 17th from in tight, making it 6-1 through 40 minutes of action.
In the third, Kuznetsov connected in close at 6:22. His second of the game and eighth goal of the year made it 7-1 for Mississippi.
The Sea Wolves continued to make the most of their power play opportunities. Jim Baxter tapped home his 15th of the year at 10:49.
Gardner surrendered one goal on 35 shots, improving his record to 24-14-4. Sundberg stopped 18-of-21, falling to 13-14-2 on the season. Blair turned away 21-of-26 in relief.
Mississippi went 4-for-4 on the power play. Baton Rouge failed to convert on seven chances with the man advantage.
The Sea Wolves return home tomorrow at 5:05 p.m. to Faceoff Against Kids' Cancer and against the Pensacola Ice Pilots at the Mississippi Coast Coliseum. Purchase your commemorative T-shirt for $15. Proceeds benefit two pediatric cancer organizations, Caps for Kids and Candlelighters. The t-shirt gets you into the game plus the postgame party and jersey auction at Grand Casino Biloxi Bayview Grand Ballroom.
Individual game tickets are available at all Ticketmaster locations, the Mississippi Coast Coliseum box office and by calling 228-594-3707.
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