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A Must-Win
Mississppi and Cincinnati hope to avoid elimination in ECHL playoffs.

04.28.03 - In sports vernacular there are not too many sayings that are as overused (and probably misused) as the old "must-win-game" cliche.

All too often players refer to certain games as "must-win", when they are well aware and reassured by the fact that, successful or not, they will play another game tomorrow.

In the case of the Mississppi Sea Wolves and the Cincinnati Cyclones of the ECHL though, that old adage rings painfully true.

These teams are facing elimination from the 2003 Kelly Cup Playoffs, each down three games-to-none in their respective best-of-7 series.

You can say what you want about both Game 4's on Monday schedule, but it is really that simple.

The Sea Wolves and Cyclones must win to play another game, a loss will end their season.

In the Northern Conference Finals, the Cyclones have trailed the Atlantic City Boardwalk Bullies, since losing a close one-goal game on Wednesday.

Atlantic City rallied from a 4-2 deficit, scoring three goals in 2:46 of the third period for a 5-4 come-from-behind win in Game 1.

Atlantic City Goalie Scott Stirling stepped up in the next two games, making sure the late-game heroics would not be needed.

He shut out Cincinnati 5-0 in game 2 on Friday, while stopping 37 of 38 shots as the Bullies defeated the Cyclones 3-1 in Game 3 on Sunday.

Stirling, who returned from the American Hockey League prior to the Northern Conference Finals, is 3-0 with a 1.67 goals against average and a .944 save percentage in the 2003 Kelly Cup Playoffs.

In the Southern Conference Finals, the Columbia Inferno scored twice in the third period to secure a 5-2 victory over Mississippi in Game 1.

It took an extra period, but the end result was much the same for the Sea Wolves in Game 2.

Inferno Left-Winger Barrie Moore scored the game-winning goal, his second goal of the game, at 9:08 of overtime to give Columbia a 3-2 win.

Heading to Biloxi for game 3, the Sea Wolves had reason to be confident; Mississippi's last regulation loss at home was on December 20.

Undaunted, Rookie Tim Smith scored two goals and added an assist to pace the Inferno past the Sea Wolves 4-3 in Game 3, the first home-loss for Mississippi in 22 games.

"The Inferno are playing good hockey," Sea Wolves coach Bob Woods said. "There's not much we can do about Game 3. We just have to take it one period at a time and hopefully get on a roll."

Notice how the coach didn't say it was a must-win. Although that may be just too obvious to mention, perhaps another age-old adage comes into play here: 'the truth hurts'.