CORPUS CHRISTI, TX – Charles Baldwin and Joe Ginley each scored short-handed goals on the same penalty kill as the Corpus Christi IceRays won the regular season finale over the Odessa Jackalopes 8-2 in front of 4,557 fans inside the American Bank Center.
Corpus Christi tallied the first goal of the night as Jalen Schulz fired a shot from the top of the offensive circles over the right shoulder of Jackalope goaltender Nick Deery for a 1-0 lead at 6:59 of the game assisted by Beau Walker.
The Jackalopes responded just 47 seconds later as Taylor Portner was denied by IceRays goalie Ben Myers. The rebound was kicked right out to Matthew Montemurro who pinched in from the point to bury his 4th goal of the year 7:46 into the contest tying the game at one.
Emil Romig continues his scoring streak with his third goal of the weekend while on the power-play. Beau Walker took the puck in the left wing circle and fed it through a screen right to a wide open Romig who had all day to beat Nick Deery for his 16th on the season and the Rays’ took a 2-1 lead.
Corpus Christi added four goals in the second period that started with a pair of short-handed goals while on the same penalty kill. Joe Ginley walked in all alone beating Nick Deery, unassisted at 6:45 of the second to take a 3-1 lead for the playoff bound IceRays.
Just 26 seconds later Charles Baldwin picked up the other short-handed tally on that penalty kill as Rudy Sulmonte banked a shot off the right leg pad of Deery right to Baldwin who fired in his 12th of the year and the IceRays led 4-1.
Sulmonte picked up a goal of his own at the 15:38 point of the middle frame as Nick Monfils hit Charles Baldwin with a great pass throught the neutral zone. Baldwin back-handed the puck over the defender right to Sulmonte for his 28th goal of the year pushing Corpus Christi to a four goal lead, 5-1.
With 1:23 remaining in the second period AJ Jarosz moved down the left wing boards and sent a wrister on net that squeezed its way through the legs of Nick Deery and the IceRays took a 6-1 lead after 40min of play.
In the final period of the regular season Ryan McNeely tallied his 3rd with the IceRays and 5th overall with assists from Jarosz and Grant Hutton at 6:10 of the third period and Corpus Christi now led 7-1.
Emil Romig tacked on a goal at 11:36 of the final period off a pass from Mike Economos beating Erick Majerle who replaced Nick Deery and the IceRays took an 8-1 lead just over midway through the third.
Odessa tacked on another goal off a Jimmy Peplinski shot it was John Feemster who got the last touch and beat Ben Myers with 6:14 left in the game to pull the Jacks’ within six goals.
Ben Myers denied 17 of 19 shots in the win.
Corpus Christi heads north to Amarillo for a five game series in round one of the NAHL playoffs starting next Friday and Saturday for games one and two.
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.
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