Corpus Christi, Texas – The ability to bounce back from tough loss has been a strength for the Corpus Christi IceRays all season long.
On Saturday night, the IceRays combined bouncing back and finishing on the right side of a shootout.
Stepan Kuznetsov scored the only goal for either team in the shootout to lift Corpus Christi to a 6-5 win over the Shreveport Mudbugs at the American Bank Center.
“We finally got the monkey off our backs in overtime,” IceRays head coach Sylvain Cloutier said. “We played a really good game.”
Corpus Christi is now 9-13-1, 2 SOL for 21 points and still sitting in eighth place in the NAHL South Division, four points ahead of Colorado.
Shreveport is still in second place in the South at 15-7-0 2 SOL for 32 points.
Carter Krenke scored his first two goals as an IceRay, Max Tedestedt netted a pair for Corpus Christi and Mathieu Bourgault also added a goal.
“Max and Carter had a great game for us tonight,” Cloutier said. “It’s nice to see the two young fellows to get rewarded for the hard work.”
Colin Vassallo scored a pair of goals, while Jonah Jasser and Logan Heroux each added a goal for Shreveport.
The IceRays outshot the Mudbugs 36-34.
IceRays netminder Bryant Marks stopped 29 of 34 shots, including all the shots he faced in the shootout.
Haldenby collected his eighth goal of the season 59 seconds into the first period to give Shreveport a 1-0 lead.
But Corpus Christi answered with goals by Krenke at 5:33, Tedestedt at 6:11 and Krenke again to take a 3-1 advantage after one period.
Heroux scored his eight at 4:54 of the second period while Vassallo scored his sixth at 10:51 and Jasser got his first just less than a minute later at 11:51 as Shreveport moved in front 4-3 before Tedestedt got his second of the game to tie the game at 4-4 heading into the third period.
Vassallo netted his second of the game and seventh of the year at 10:03 of the third period before Bourgault sent the game to overtime with his fourth goal of the year at 11:34.
The IceRays and Mudbugs will conclude their three-game series Sunday afternoon in a contest set for 4 p.m. CST.
You can watch the game on NAHLTV.com and can also catch it on Brewster Stre0et Radio.
For more info on the IceRays visit goicerays.com.
