SHREVEPORT, La. – Conor Witherspoon broke a 2-2 tie midway through the third period Friday to give the Shreveport Mudbugs a 3-2 win over the Corpus Christi IceRays inside George’s Pond at Hirsch Memorial Coliseum.
Artur Turansky and Erik Bargholtz scored for the IceRays (8-4-1-2, 19 pts.) while Jeremy Forman made 39 saves.
Turansky’s goal opened the scoring at 11:08 of the first period, firing a shot from the left wall past Mudbugs goaltender Maiszon Balboa. But the Mudbugs responded quickly as defenseman Sam Miller tied the game at 12:42.
Each team scored in the second period. Matt Weber gave the Mudbugs their first lead of the night at 10:54, grabbing a turnover and scoring from the low slot. The IceRays then tied the game at two with 1:05 left in the period when Erik Bargholtz received a pass from Ryan Coughlin on a 2-on-1 rush and fired a glove-side shot past Balboa.
Witherspoon’s game-winning tally at 10:34 of the third period completed a give-and-go on a 3-on-1 rush.
Shreveport (8-5-0-0, 16 pts.) outshot the IceRays by a 42-38 margin. Neither team scored on a combined seven power-play opportunities.
The IceRays and Mudbugs rematch Saturday night at 7:11 p.m. CT. All IceRays games are carried live on Sportsradio Corpus Christi 1230 AM – 95.1 FM – 96.1 FM (KSIX-AM/FM), HockeyTV (HD iPPV) and mixlr.com/icerays (free audio).
Next weekend, the IceRays return home for a two-game set against the Topeka Pilots at the American Bank Center, Oct. 25-26. Saturday, Oct. 26 is the annual Pink Out game; fans are encouraged to wear pink to the arena in support of breast cancer awareness. Tickets for all 2019-20 IceRays home games are on sale now at the American Bank Center box office and all Ticketmaster outlets. 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).
