Corpus Christi, Texas – The Corpus Christi IceRays were focused heading into their a stretch of six-straight games on the road.
And they kept the focus added with a little hunger.
Corpus Christi got a pair of late goals in the third period by Stepan Kuznetsov and Gage Parillo to get past the Odesa Jackalopes 4-3 Friday night at the Ector County Coliseum in Odessa.
Kuznetsov netted his 16th goal of the year, unassisted at 17:52 of the final period to tie the game at 3-3.
Parillo scored his fourth of the season from Derek Pietrzyk at 19:41 to give the IceRays the win.
Pierson Sobush scored a pair of goals for the IceRays.
Thomas Wright, James Richman and Nick Metelkin scored goals for Odessa.
“Big win for the boys,” IceRays Head Coach Sylvain Cloutier said. “Never gave up, kept going and they got rewarded.”
Wright got his fifth of the year at 3:18 of the first period and Richman collected his 15th with the man-advantage at 8:39 and the Jackalopes led 2-0 after one period.
Sobush came back with two goals 14 seconds apart, with his 17th of the year, unassisted at 14:30 of the second period, and his 18th at 14:44 to tie the game.
“It was a pretty big win and we needed it,” IceRays forward Gage Parillo said. “We’ve been getting up on teams and the pucks finally went into the net tonight.”
Metelkin scored his fourth at 15;35 and the IceRays were down 3-2 heading into the third period.
Corpus Christi improved to 3-6-0, 0SOL in its last nine games, 4-11-0, 0SOL in its last 15 contests and 8-14-0, 1SOL in its last 23 games.
Overall, the IceRays are 17-31-2, 3SOL for 39 points, in eighth place in the NAHL South Division, 10 points behind the Jackalopes for seventh, and 17 points behind the Oklahoma Warriors for sixth.
Odessa is 21-25-5, 2SOL for 49 points, in seventh place, seven points behind the Oklahoma Warriors.
The IceRays are now 3-2 against the Jackalopes this season in head-to-head action.
“We’ve been working hard in the right direction all year and I think there’s no quit in this team at all,” Parillo said. “We’re getting better every single day and it’s a learning experience.”
Corpus Christi won despite being outshot 44-30.
The IceRays were 0-for-3 on the power play while Odessa was 1-for-3.
The IceRays will close out the weekend with the Jackalopes Saturday night at 7:15 p.m. CDT.
You can watch the game on NAHL TV.
For more information, visit goicerays.com.
