HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — It’s the final homestand of the regular season for the Huntsville Havoc and the head coaching tenure of Glenn Detulleo.
The franchise’s longest-tenured and winningest coach, Detulleo has been the face of the program since his playing days, when he was the team’s player-coach. He took over as head coach after a six-game interim stint during the 2012 season.
He’s as surprised as anyone that it’s coming to a close so quickly.
“Man, it's been going by really fast,” Detulleo said after practice Thursday. “That's the crazy part is it's just hard to believe it's the last home weekend … so I haven't really thought a lot too, too much about the last year, especially regular season games.”
That might have to do with how he and the team is geared towards a run to the franchise’s fourth President’s Cup. That’d put them in a three-way tie with the Knoxville Ice Bears and the Pensacola Ice Flyers for most all-time. Already with a playoff spot clinched since
“I think the focus here the next two weeks and four games is we just got to make sure we're playing our best game, we're... we're firing on all cylinders,” Detulleo said. “We're trying to make sure the guys are doing the things that we want to do on a consistent basis.”
“We've got some new players in, so it's just really kind of acclimating them to how we want to do things,” said the league’s second-winningest coach all-time. “The window is shrinking, but I think you can tell there's a lot of energy and excitement. I mean, the playoffs are just around the corner, so I think everybody's just kind of chomping at the bit to get going.”
Even though the Havoc sit comfortably in third place in the league with a place in the postseason tournament already clinched, home ice advantage and who their opponent will be is still on the line, so the stakes remain high.
“The higher we can finish, there's a stronger likelihood you're going to get a couple of rounds at home potentially, so we still got a lot to play for,” Detulleo said.
The Havoc host the Ice Flyers (25-23-2) Friday, March 31 and Saturday, April 1. These teams haven’t played each other since the middle of January, when the Ice Flyers won a 4-3 decision on the 13th. However, the Havoc lead the season series 5-2. The seventh-placed Ice Flyers are among the three teams in contention for the final two playoff spots. The league’s top eight teams make the postseason. The Vermilion County Bobcats (4-24-2) and Macon Mayhem (12-36-3) occupy the eleventh and tenth places, respectively.
“I think our guys know that it's a desperate team coming in, but it's not like we came off a great weekend last weekend,” said Detulleo, referencing his squad’s two losses last weekend: a 3-1 decision in Birmingham against the Bulls and a 5-4 home loss to the Mayhem. “There's a lot of things we've got to do. We've got extra guys that aren't in the lineup that want to get in the lineup. So, you know, there's some internal competition. There's a lot on the line for us, no doubt.”
The team has made this final home weekend a major occasion. On top of the send-off for their skipper, before Friday’s game, former player Nolan Kaiser’s No. 10 jersey will be retired. It’ll be the fifth set of numerals to hang under the rafters.
Saturday’s pregame routine will include autograph sessions with current and former players starting as soon as the gates open to the public at 6 pm.
Eleven members of the 2018 and ‘19 championship teams are set to attend the reunion. One of which, Christian Powers, joined the current team on ice for their morning skate. The turnout means something to Detulleo.
“We talk about it all the time and I think people in sports or outside of sports can think it's kind of corny, but we think we've had a family and you know,” he said.”
“I've seen these guys when they were in their twenties playing for me, just kind of cutting your teeth and pro hockey,” said Detulleo, smiling. “Now you get to see them again and they've got kids and they're married and it's just… it's awesome.”
The Havoc will then travel to Moline, Ill., for two games at the Quad City Storm (22-27-1) to conclude the regular season. The Storm sit in ninth place and, like the Flyers, have yet to clinch a playoff spot. The SPHL playoffs will begin the following week.
If the season ended today, the No. 3 Havoc would host the No. 6 Ice Bears in a best-of-three series. The winners of the four quarterfinals would play against each other in a reseeded round based off original playoff seeds, with the two semifinal winners playing in a three-game President’s Cup Final series. The full playoff format can be found here .