2007–08 SPHL season

2007–08 SPHL season
League	Southern Professional Hockey League
Sport	Ice hockey
Duration	October 25, 2007–April 13, 2008
Regular season
Season champions	Knoxville Ice Bears
Season MVP	Kevin Swider (Knoxville)[1]
Top scorer	Kevin Swider (Knoxville)
Playoffs
Finals champions	Knoxville Ice Bears
Finals runners-up	Jacksonville Barracudas

The 2007–08 Southern Professional Hockey League season was the fourth season of the Southern Professional Hockey League. The regular season began October 25, 2007, and ended April 13, 2008, after a 52-game regular season and a six-team playoff. The Knoxville Ice Bears won their second SPHL championship.

Preseason

The Pee Dee Cyclones moved from Florence, South Carolina, to Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and changed their name to the Twin City Cyclones. The league also named a new commissioner, Jim Combs, in June 2007.^[2]

Teams

2007-08 Southern Professional Hockey League
Team	City	Arena
Columbus Cottonmouths	Columbus, Georgia	Columbus Civic Center
Fayetteville FireAntz	Fayetteville, North Carolina	Cumberland County Crown Coliseum
Huntsville Havoc	Huntsville, Alabama	Von Braun Center
Jacksonville Barracudas	Jacksonville, Florida	Jacksonville Veterans Memorial Arena
Knoxville Ice Bears	Knoxville, Tennessee	Knoxville Civic Coliseum
Richmond Renegades	Richmond, Virginia	Richmond Coliseum
Twin City Cyclones	Winston-Salem, North Carolina	LJVM Coliseum Annex

Map of teams

Columbus

Fayetteville

Huntsville

Jackson-
ville

Knoxville

Richmond

Twin City

SPHL teams

Regular season

Final standings

Team[3]	GP	W	L	OTL	GF	GA	Pts
Knoxville Ice Bears^‡	52	32	16	4	199	169	68
Jacksonville Barracudas	52	30	17	5	201	167	65
Fayetteville FireAntz	52	25	19	8	186	198	58
Richmond Renegades	52	27	22	3	178	174	57
Twin City Cyclones	52	23	25	4	185	207	50
Columbus Cottonmouths	52	24	22	6	168	186	50
Huntsville Havoc	52	23	27	2	195	211	48

^‡ William B. Coffey Trophy winners

  Advanced to playoffs

Attendance

Team	Total	Games	Average
Fayetteville	102,208	26	3,931
Richmond	101,476	26	3,902
Huntsville	99,672	26	3,833
Knoxville	93,633	26	3,601
Columbus	83,590	26	3,215
Twin City	30,698	26	1,180
Jacksonville	29,200	26	1,123

President's Cup playoffs

	First round									Second round							Final
	1	Knoxville Ice Bears	4	5	2	2	6
	6	Columbus Cottonmouths	2	2	4	4	3
																	1	Knoxville Ice Bears	6	4	4	x	x
	3	Fayetteville FireAntz			4	5	x
																	2	Jacksonville Barracudas	2	3	2	x	x
	4	Richmond Renegades			1	4	x
										3	Fayetteville FireAntz	2	1	3
										2	Jacksonville Barracudas	1	2	6
	5	Twin City Cyclones			3	4	x
	2	Jacksonville Barracudas			4	7	x

Finals

April 10, 2008 7:30 pm

Jacksonville

2 – 6

Knoxville

James White Civic Coliseum, Knoxville, TN Attendance: 1,971

Game reference
	Tim Haun	Goalies	Kirk Irving	Referee: Nick Krebsbach
	0 – 1 02:22 - Rutt (Manny) Furdero (Rebernik, Morris) - 04:16 1 – 1 1 – 2 19:47 - Swider (Harris) 1 – 3 34:52 - Rutt (Cherneski, Harris) 1 – 4 36:20 - Craigen (Swider, Harris) (PP) 1 – 5 45:54 - Pelkey (Manny, Harris) (SH) Rollins (Wagner, Thomas) - 47:11 2 – 5 2 – 6 54:22 - Vitek (Harris, Swider) (PP)
	8 min	Penalties	6 min
	21	Shots	35

April 12, 2008 7:35 pm

Knoxville

4 – 3

Jacksonville

Jacksonville Ice, Jacksonville, FL Attendance: 1,656

Game reference
	Kirk Irving	Goalies	Ryan Person	Referee: Joe Sullivan
	Vitek (Swider) - 02:26 (PP) 1 – 0 Wrobel (Harris, Swider) - 27:06 (PP) 2 – 0 2 – 1 29:53 - Webb (Geerlinks, Shaw) Vitek (Swider, Craigen) - 31:37 (PP) 3 – 1 3 – 2 40:17 - Rebernik (Thomas, Wagner) Pelkey (Rutt) - 46:57 4 – 2 4 – 3 48:57 - Swartzentruber (Webb, Colangelo)
	25 min	Penalties	21 min
	20	Shots	42

April 13, 2008 7:30 pm

Jacksonville

2 – 4

Knoxville

James White Civic Coliseum, Knoxville, TN Attendance: 2,229

Game reference
	Ryan Person	Goalies	Kirk Irving	Referee: Dan Dreger
	0 – 1 01:19 - Pelkey (Rutt) 0 – 2 09:51 - Swider (Smith, Craigen) Thomas (Wagner, Geerlinks) - 12:12 1 – 2 Webb (MacDonald, Rochefort) - 12:22 2 – 2 2 – 3 37:32 - Vitek (Lynch, Craigen) 2 – 4 53:53 - Vitek (Harris, Swider) (PP)
	8 min	Penalties	10 min
	32	Shots	24

Awards

SPHL award winners were announced March 24, 2008.^[4]

President's Cup:	Knoxville Ice Bears
Coffey Trophy:	Knoxville Ice Bears
League MVP:	Kevin Swider (Knoxville)
Rookie of the Year:	Taylor Hustead (Twin City)[4]
Defenseman of the Year:	Dan Vandermeer (Richmond)[5]
Goaltender of the Year:	Tim Haun (Jacksonville)[6]
Coach of the Year:	Rick Alain (Jacksonville)[5]
Playoff MVP:	Kirk Irving (Knoxville)[7]

References

1. Gates, Nick (March 25, 2008). "Swider named SPHL's MVP again". Knoxville News Sentinel. Retrieved March 20, 2010.
2. "SPHL Hires Commissioner, Wraps Up Summer Meetings". Press release. June 26, 2007. Retrieved March 20, 2010.
3. "SPHL Standings". Pointstreak.com. Retrieved March 17, 2010.
4. "Hustead And Moore Receive League Recognition". Press release. March 24, 2008. Retrieved March 20, 2010.
5. "Vandermeer Defenseman Of The Year". Press release. March 24, 2008. Retrieved March 20, 2010.
6. "Mississippi's Bill Zaniboni Named Goaltender of the Year". Press release. April 1, 2010. Retrieved April 3, 2010.
7. Gates, Nick (April 14, 2008). "Ice Bears on Hockey Top". Knoxville News Sentential. Retrieved March 20, 2010.