CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas – The Corpus Christi IceRays picked up their fifth win against the Odessa Jackalopes in the past eight nights, skating to a 5-2 final Friday night at American Bank Center. IceRays defenseman Tod Philibert (1+3) and forward Erik Bargholtz (1+2) led the way offensively with multi-point outings.
Corpus Christi (8-2-1-2, 19 pts.) registered a season-high 46 shots on goal. Jeremy Forman made 32 saves for his fourth victory of the season.
Odessa’s Jan Blasko opened the scoring at the 5:33 mark of the first period, sending a stick-side rebound past Forman for the Jackalopes’ first goal against the IceRays in 223:25 of game action dating back to last Friday.
About six minutes later, Shane Bull scored a shorthanded wraparound goal to tie the game for the IceRays. Later in the frame, Erik Bargholtz tallied his third goal of the weekend with a power-play marker at 17:57. Ryan Coughlin then picked up a goal from the slot just 37 seconds later. The IceRays almost made it 4-1 in the final seconds of the first period but Justin Thompson’s potential goal was waved off due to a high stick. Corpus Christi recorded a season-high 21 shots in the first period.
In the second period, Evan Carroll scored to make it 4-1 at the 6:19 mark, but Aeden Drossos responded at 11:53 as the IceRays’ lead at intermission once again was a two-goal margin.
In the third period, Philibert registered his first career NAHL goal at 2:42, marking the final goal of the contest.
The IceRays’ penalty kill went three-for-three on the night, improving to 13-for-13 on the weekend. The win marked the first time Corpus Christi has registered five goals in a game this season.
Corpus Christi and Odessa complete their stretch of six games in nine nights against each other with a 7:05 PM game Saturday at American Bank Center. Tickets are on sale now at the American Bank Center box office and ticketmaster.com. All IceRays home and road games are carried live on Sportsradio Corpus Christi (KSIX-AM/FM), HockeyTV and Mixlr. For more information on the IceRays, or to purchase tickets, visit goicerays.com or call 361-814-PUCK (7825). Stay connected with the IceRays on Facebook (/CorpusChristiIceRays), Twitter (@goicerays) and Instagram (CorpusChristiIceRays).
