Corpus Christi, Texas – The Corpus Christi IceRays continued trending in a positive direction amid a long road stretch.
The IceRays jumped out to an early lead and fought to the end in a 5-3 victory over the Odesa Jackalopes Saturday night at the Ector County Coliseum in Odessa.
Dylan Jensen, Andrew Hayek, Wolfgang Govedaris, Cody Kempf and Zakhar Polshakov each had goals for Corpus Christi.
Thomas Wright, Christian Tavare and Michael Kadlecik scored for Odessa.
“It was great to get the sweep,” IceRays Head Coach Sylvain Cloutier said. “We are really happy with the way we played. Now we need to keep that going the rest of the road trip.”
Corpus Christi improved to 4-6-0, 0SOL in its last ten games, 5-11-0, 0SOL in its last 16 contests and 9-14-0, 1SOL in its last 24 games.
Overall, the IceRays are 18-31-2, 3SOL for 41 points, in eighth place in the NAHL South Division, eight points behind the Jackalopes for seventh, and 17 points behind the Oklahoma Warriors for sixth.
Odessa is 21-26-5, 2SOL for 49 points, in seventh place, nine points behind the Oklahoma Warriors.
The IceRays are now 4-2 against the Jackalopes this season in head-to-head action.
Jensen scored his eighth of the season at 5:28 of the opening period to give the IceRays a 1-0 lead.
Hayek came back with his second of the season from Cody Kempf at 7:21 to make it 2-0.
Wright cut the lead in half with his sixth of the year on the power play and it was 2-1 after one period.
Govedaris netted his third at 5:36 of the second period to re-give Corpus Christi a two-goal lead after two periods.
Tavare scored his fifth at 7:53 of the third to make it 3-2 IceRays.
Kemp responded with his eighth at 15:28 to double the lead to 4-2.
Polshakov netted his night of the year into an empty net at 18:57.
Kadlecik closed out the scoring with his 16th of the year on the power play at 19:58.
Corpus Christi and Odessa were tied in the shots-on-goal department with 40 apiece.
The IceRays were 0-for-2 on the power play while Odessa was 2-for-4.
The IceRays will open a two-game series against the Oklahoma Warriors Friday March 22 and Saturday, March 23 at 7:15 p.m. CDT at the Blazers Ice Centre.
You can watch the games on NAHL TV and listen on Brewster Street Radio.
For more information, visit goicerays.com.
