Corpus Christi IceRays Drop A Tough One To Odessa In Overtime Thursday Night At ABC
Corpus Christi, Texas – With two games to play in the 2023-24 season, the goal was simple for the Corpus Christi IceRays, finish strong at home.
If finishing strong means finishing with shots in the back of the net, so far so good.
It was an offensive slugfest as the IceRays ultimately fell to the Odessa Jackalopes 7-6 in overtime Thursday night at the American Bank Center.
Kowin Belsterling scored at 2:10 of the overtime frame to spoil the night for the IceRays and their faithful.
Six different IceRays scored goals with Will Reardon, Pierson Sobush, Cody Kempf, Troy Pelton, Dylan Jensen and Carter Krenke all lighting the goal lamp.
Michael Kadlecik scored a pair of goals for Odessa, while Marcus Fechko, Hayden DeMars, Nick Metelkin and Jeremy Jacobs all added a goal for the Jackalopes.
“It was exciting for the fans, the back-and-forth, but we need to do better tomorrow night to end the season at home in front of our fans,” IceRays Head Coach Sylvain Cloutier said.
The IceRays have won three of their last seven games and are 5-9-1, 0SOL in their last 15 games, 6-14-1, 0SOL in their last 21 contests and 10-17-1, 1SOL in their last 29 games.
Overall, the IceRays are 19-34-3, 3SOL for 44 points, in eighth place in the NAHL South Division, eight points behind the Jackalopes for seventh, and 21 points behind the Warriors for sixth.
Odessa is 22-29-5, 3SOL for 52 points and are 13 points behind the Oklahoma Warriors.
The IceRays are 4-2-1, 0SOL against the Jackalopes this season.
Odessa jumped on the board first on Fechko’s third goal of the season at 1:20 of the first period.
The IceRays answered quickly on Reardon’s 10th of the year from Max Tedestedt and Zach Homer at 2:27.
Less than a minute later, Sobush collected his 19th goal from Pelton at 3:12 to give the IceRays a 2-1 lead.
Kempf netted his 10th goal from Pelton and Jensen at 16:12, but DeMars scored his 17th goal at 18:57 to cut the IceRays lead to 3-2 after one period.
Both teams kept the scoring going with a goal each in the first minute of the second period.
Pelton scored his fifth goal of the season from Sobush and Stepan Kuznetsov 28 second into the frame.
Metelkin answered with his fifth at 1:08 and the IceRays led 4-3.
Odessa tied the game on Jacobs first goal of the season at 13:43.
Jensen gave the IceRays a 5-4 lead with his tenth of the year at 17:59 and that’s where the score stayed as the two teams went to the locker room.
Kadlecik scored his 16th at 3:20 of the third to tie the game.
–
Krenke re-gave the IceRays the lead at 6-5 with his fourth goal of the year from Jensen and Wolfgang Govedaris at 8:32 of the third period.
Kadlecik answered with his 17th goal at 9:20 and the game was tied heading into overtime.
Belsterling scored his 13th of the year at 2:10 of the extra period to give the Jackalopes a wild win.
The IceRays will finish the 2023-24 season against the Jackalopes Friday night at 7:05 p.m. 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.
