Corpus Christi, Texas – With a team in town with the nickname Grit, the Corpus Christi IceRays needed to play with some grit of their own.
The IceRays led after the first two periods but were unable to hang on in a 4-3 loss to Colorado Friday night at the American Bank Center.
Cody Kempf netted a pair of goals for Corpus Christi while Will Reardon added one goal.
Wilder Jacober, Nolan Shaw, Jordan Gudridge and Chris Graves each scored goals for Colorado.
The IceRays outshot the Grit 39-32, including 21-9 in the first period.
“When you play shorthanded for half of the second period, you give them momentum and shoot yourselves in the foot,” IceRays Head Coach Sylvain Cloutier said. “We came out extremely hard and outshot them, but gave up a goal on the first shot, so that doesn’t help.”
Corpus Christi was 1-for-2 on the power play, while Colorado was 1-for-6 with the man-advantage, scoring on their final opportunity.
Corpus Christi is 1-4-0, 0SOL in its last five games, 3-9-0, 0SOL in its last 12 contests and 6-11-0, 1SOL in its last 18 games.
Overall, the IceRays are 15-28-2, 3SOL for 35 points, in eighth place in the NAHL South Division, 11 points behind the Odessa Jackalopes for seventh, and 19 points behind the Oklahoma Warriors for sixth.
Colorado is in ninth place in the NAHL South at 9-30-3, 2SOL with 23 points, 12 points behind the IceRays.
Colorado is 1-4-0, 0SOL in its last five games.
Corpus Christi and Colorado split two contests in November with Colorado winning the first game 5-0 November 24, and the IceRays coming back to win 7-3 November 25.
Jacober put the Grit on top in the first minute of the contest with his 11th goal of the season 53 seconds in.
Kempf answered with his sixth and seventh goals of the year 1:21 apart.
His first came at 8:09 from Michael Valdez and Luca Fasciano to tie the game. He later gave the IceRays a 2-1 advantage from Troy Pelton and Max Tedestedt at 9:30 and Corpus Christi enjoyed that advantage after one period.
Shaw tied the game at 2-2 with his first goal at 6:27 of the second period.
Reardon came back with his ninth of the season at 8:11 from Jackson Wade and Fasciano and the IceRays led 3-2 heading into the final period.
Gudridge collected his seventh goal of the year at 3:50 and the game was tied at 3-3.
Less than two minutes later, Graves collected his fourth of the season at 5:36 to give the Grit a 4-3 lead.
The two teams will go at it again Sunday afternoon at 4 p.m. CST at the American Bank Center.
You can watch the game on NAHL TV and listen on Brewster Street Radio.
For more information, visit goicerays.com.
