What's it going to take to cool off the red-hot Richmond Renegades? Hard to say, but Huntsville didn't have the answer last night.

A four-goal second period put the Renegades in charge, and they went on to post a 5-4 decision over the Havoc for their 10th consecutive victory.

With Andre Gill scoring twice and Trevor Karasiewicz setting up three goals, Richmond registered its seventh consecutive win on home ice before an announced crowd of 2,791.

"That's one in a row," Richmond coach Brian Goudie said. "We're just taking it one game at a time. That's all we've been doing. When we were 7-12, we did the same thing.

"You guys keep on writing [about the streak]. We'll just keep on playing."

By capturing 12 of their past 13, the Renegades (19-13-2) have risen from the bottom of the Southern Professional Hockey League to within two points of first-place Knoxville (19-12-4) and has a game in hand.

"The last three weeks, we've shown we can play with every team in the league," said defenseman Dan Vandermeer, who also had three assists. "Everybody's buying into the system, and we've shown what we can do when that happens."

Despite its record, the Havoc (13-19-0) made it interesting, however, creating some doubt until the final horn.

When Drew Madeiros scored off a beautiful pass from Donald Melnyk with 2:12 left to put Richmond up 5-3, this one appeared to be over.

Huntsville, though, pulled goaltender Steve Briere with about a minute and a half to go, and the Havoc made it a one-goal game on Beau McLaughlin's score with 1:14 to go.

For most of the final minute, Huntsville's net was empty, but the Renegades' defense kept the Havoc from mounting a serious threat. Because of a penalty, Huntsville had a 6-on-4 advantage for the last 10 seconds and couldn't get off a shot.

The Havoc, which came into the affair on a five-game losing streak and firmly entrenched in last place, spent most of the opening period in Richmond's end.

That eventually led to a power-play goal by James Patterson at 8:09, but the Renegades were fortunate to escape to the locker room down only 1-0 at the first intermission.

Richmond looked much sharper in the second period, scoring four times on eight shots.

"We had just come off a road trip, and sometimes you tend to go into a little lull," Goudie said. "You do some of the things you do on the road. It took us a period to shake that off, regroup and go back and play like we should at home."

The Renegades turned on the red light twice in less than a minute to take a 2-1 edge after eight minutes. Gill's first goal came on a blast from outside the blue line that glanced off Briere's stick and into the net.

Denis Sicard, returning from wrist surgery and a month on the injured-reserve list, teamed with Karasiewicz on a 2-on-1 break to give Richmond the lead.

After the Havoc tied it, the Renegades were forced to kill a two-man advantage for 1:08 before Gill's 21st goal of the season made it 3-2 on a power play at 16:51.

Huntsville drew even again on a soft shot that fluttered past goalie Ryan Senft, but Richmond took a 4-3 lead into the second break on J.J. Wrobel's power-play bomb from the circle with 40.9 seconds to go.

"We got our feet moving a little better in the second period," Vandermeer said. "We went out there and got after them a little harder."

UP NEXT: The Renegades open a two-game series with Jacksonville here tomorrow night at 7:35. The Barracudas have won six consecutive going into tonight's game at Twin City.

Huntsville ------------------------- 1 2 1 -- 4
Richmond ------------------------- 0 4 1 -- 5

First period -- 1, Huntsville, Patterson 18 (O'Sullivan, Olauson), 8:09 (pp). Penalties -- Lewis, Rich (cross-checking), 6:51; Melnyk, Rich (boarding), 10:49; Olauson, Hunt (hooking), 12:14; Richmond, bench minor (too many men), 16:21; Patterson, Hunt (hooking), 16:28.

Second period -- 2, Richmond, Gill 20 (Karasiewicz, Kloucek), 7:06. 3, Richmond, Sicard 5 (Karasiewicz, Gill), 7:57. 4, Huntsville, Olauson 6 (Welch, Weibel), 9:44. 5, Richmond, Gill 21 (Vandermeer, Wrobel), 16:51 (pp). 6, Huntsville, O'Sullivan 17 (McLaughlin, Sheen), 18:26. 7, Wrobel 12 (Vandermeer, Karasiewicz), 19:19 (pp). Penalties -- Vandermeer, Rich (hooking), 13:31; Melnyk, Rich (holding), 14:24; Hockley, Hunt (roughing), 16:34; Sheen, Hunt (roughing), 17:40; Sicard, Rich (roughing), 17:40; Lounsbury, Hunt (interference), 19:10.

Third period -- 8, Richmond, Madeiros 10 (Melnyk, Vandermeer), 17:48. 9, Huntsville, McLaughlin 7 (Olauson, Sheen), 18:46. Penalties -- Hockley, Hunt (interference), 7:24; Weibel, Hunt (interference), 9:41; Hickman, Rich (high-sticking), 19:50.

Shots on goal -- Huntsville 12-13-12--37; Richmond 9-8-12--29. Power-play opportunities -- Huntsville 1 of 6, Richmond 2 of 6. Goalies: Huntsville: Briere 0-1-0 (29 shots-24 saves), Richmond: Senft 12-5-0 (37-33). Referee: Tim Apodaca. A -- 2,791.