AMARILLO, TX – Malo Ville scored the only goal of the evening on the power-play for the Corpus Christi IceRays as they fell to the Amarillo Bulls 7-1 on Friday night in front of 1,735 fans at the Amarillo Civic Center.
The games’ first goal came as an IceRays defender pinched in from the right point. After an interception the Bulls went in on a three-on-one rush. Mike Davis centered the puck to Brendan McGuire who wristed the puck top shelf over a sprawling Ben Myers for a 1-0 Amarillo lead at 5:52 of the first.
While the Bulls were already on a 5-on-3 power-play, a delayed penalty was called on goaltender Ben Myers. Collin Delia came to the bench for a sixth skater and with the three man advantage Mike Davis gave Amarillo a 2-0 lead at the 12:35 mark of the opening period. The goal was assisted by Brady Ferguson and Kyle Gattelaro.
After the goal, the ‘Rays still needed to serve another 5-on-3 penalty-kill. A shot from the point by Joe Grabowski was stopped by Myers but a crowd gathered jamming away at the loose puck. Finally, Kyle Gattelaro got the last touch to put the Bulls up 3-0 on another power-play goal at 14:10 of the first. After one period however, the IceRays were only being outshot 12-8.
In the second period Matt Sieckhaus scored a pair of goals for Amarillo. The first came at 3:57 on another odd man rush as Roman Ammirato centered the puck to Sieckhaus who deked Myers and backhanded in Amarillo’s fourth goal of the night for a 4-0 lead over the IceRays.
Sieckhaus struck again to make it 5-0 on an unassisted goal that deflected behind the net right onto his stick for a tap-in goal at 12:34 of the 2nd period ending the night for Ben Myers who was replaced by Forbes Ploszaj in net.
Corpus Christi got on the board with under a minute to go in the period. Malo Ville flew down the left wing wall and let a wrister go from the left wing circle that beat Bulls netminder Collin Delia over the shoulder to pull the ‘Rays within four goals at 5-1 with 53 seconds left. The assists were given to Kyle Froese and goaltender Forbes Ploszaj.
In the third period the Bulls tacked on two more goals. Carter Penzien went in alone against two IceRays defenders and cut across the top of the offensive zone circles firing a shot that went by the glove of Ploszaj and into the net, unassisted at 12:05 for a 6-1 lead.
The final goal of the night came off the stick of Kyle Gattelaro that barely trickled through the legs of Ploszaj at 14:36 for a 7-1 lead assisted by Matt Sieckhaus and Roman Ammirato.
Ben Myers stopped 17 of 22 and Forbes Ploszaj put aside 9 of 11 shots in the loss.
The IceRays finish the series in Amarillo tomorrow night. Puck drops at 7:05PM, coverage begins at 6:50PM with the IceRays Pregame Show on 91.1FM KSGR, ksgr.org, ustream.com, and fasthockey.com.
Stay current with the latest team news by visiting www.goicerays.com. In addition stay connected with the IceRays on Facebook (/corpuschristiicerays), Twitter (@goicerays), and the team’s Youtube channel ICERAYS TV (@goicerays)
