Corpus Christi, Texas – The Corpus Christi IceRays began the 2024 portion of the season on the road against a familiar opponent.
Riding a two-game winning streak, the IceRays had a rough night in a 5-0 loss to the Shreveport Mudbugs Friday night at the Georges Pond Hirsch Coliseum in Shreveport, Louisiana.
It’s the fifth time this season that the IceRays have been shut out, and second time against Shreveport. The Mudbugs blanked Corpus Christi 3-0 on December 3 at the American Bank Center.
“It was very rough,” IceRays head coach Sylvain Cloutier said. “Let’s give them credit. They outworked us and outplayed us.”
The IceRays fell to 11-19-1, 2 OTL for 25 points for eighth place in the NAHL South Division.
The Mudbugs have now won eight straight and are 12-0-1 in their last 13 contests, with the lone glitch a 6-5 shootout loss to the IceRays on December 2 in Corpus Christi.
Shreveport is in second place in the South Division at 23-7-0, 2 SOL for 48 points.
Hayden Nichol scored a pair of goals for Shreveport, while Carter McKay, Brayden Cook and Lucas Deeb each added one.
Shreveport outshot Corpus Christi 44-24 including 12-5 in the second period and 17-7 in the third.
Bryant Marks saw his two-game win streak in the nets snapped as he fell to 7-9-0, 1 SOL on the year.
McKay got Shreveport on the board early with his second goal of the season at 2:41 of the first period.
Cook scored his sixth of the year at 19:36 and the Mudbugs led 2-0 after one.
Nichol scored his 12th of the season at 18:36 of the second period and it was 3-0 Shreveport after two periods.
Nichol scored his second of the night and 13th of the year at 7:46 of the third period to make it 4-0.
Deeb added his 12th tally of the season on the power play at 12:05 of the third to close out the scoring.
Shreveport was 1-for-6 on the power play to 0-for 4 for the IceRays.
The IceRays are now 2-3-1, 0 SOL against the Mudbugs this season in head-to-head play.
The two teams will go at it again tonight at 7:11 CST.
“We did not compete at all tonight,” Cloutier said. “Hopefully we get a response tomorrow night.”
You can watch the game on NAHLTV.
For more info on the IceRays visit goicerays.com.
