CORPUS CHRISTI, TX – The Corpus Christi IceRays (31-14-4) fall in overtime against the Shreveport Mudbugs (31-16-4) on a power play goal from Angel Lovecchio in the opening game of a three game series at the American Bank Center on Friday night. The victory for the Mudbugs makes them the third team in the South Division to clinch a playoff berth.
The first period saw two fights and a goal sandwiched in between in the opening three minutes of the contest. The goal was scored by Will Reardon after a shot from Pier-Olivier Allard deflected by Billy Bidermann off the pad of Nikola Goich and tapped home by Reardon to give the IceRays a 1-0 lead. Later in the period, Corpus Christi went to their second power play of the night and Cooper Conway in the middle of the slot fired a shot past Goich to double the IceRays lead. Carter Krenke picked up an assist on the goal to extend his point streak to eight games and the goal from Conways extends his streak to five.
Not much happened in the middle frame outside of a fortunate bounce for Mudbugs Defenseman Seth Merch who sent a pass of the stick of an IceRays defender that fluttered past Benji Motew to cut the IceRays deficit in half. Motew was excellent in the game making 23 saves on 26 shots. Goich at the other end of the rink was just as impressive and shut out the IceRays the rest of the game who saw plenty of chances not go their way.
Six minutes into the 3rd period Lucas Deeb snapped a shot past Motew for his team leading 22nd of the season to pull the Mudbugs back to level in the hockey game. That score would hold and send us to overtime for the third time in the season series. Corpus Christi was called for a slashing penalty in the second have the overtime frame loading up the Mudbugs power play who converted for the first time on their last chance of the night to score three unanswered completing a 3-2 comeback win.
