Corpus Christi, Texas – The Corpus Christi IceRays came out ready, but still couldn’t upend the beast of the NAHL South Division, the Lone Star Brahmas.
The IceRays fell behind in early, fought back, but didn’t have enough firepower as the Brahmas beat the IceRays 6-2 Saturday night at American Bank Center.
Ivan Zadvernyuk and Owen Kerr each scored a pair of goals for Lone Star, while Connor Bergeron and Brock James each added one goal.
Stepan Kuznetzov and Dylan Jensen got the goals for Corpus Christi.
“Same mistakes over and over,” IceRays Head Coach Sylvain Cloutier said. “We were playing pretty decent, and we got away from it. Give them credit.”
The Brahmas once again controlled the contest early, scoring 44 seconds in on Bergeron’s eighth goal of the season.
Lone Star increased its lead to 2-0 on Zadvernyuk’s 19th of the year at 16:29 and the Brahmas enjoyed a 2-0 lead after two periods.
Kuznetzov collected his 15th goal from Wolfgang Govedaris and Luke Gallo at 5:33 of the second period to cut Lone Star’s lead in half to 2-1.
But Zadvernyuk scored again, his 20th of the year at 19:08 to give Lone Star a 3-1 lead heading into the final period.
Kerr made it 4-1 Lone Star with his 14th goal at 2:08 of the third period.
Jensen netted his seventh of the season at 2:35 to cut the lead in half.
But James posted his 21st of the season at 9:08 and Kerr added his second of the game and 15th of the season at 18:53 to close out the scoring.
Lone Star outshot Corpus Christi 30-26, including 12-8 in the third period.
The IceRays were 0-for-6 on the power play, while Lone Star was 2-for-4.
Corpus Christi is 2-6-0, 0SOL in its last eight games, 3-11-0, 0SOL in its last 14 contests and 7-14-0, 1SOL in its last 22 games.
Overall, the IceRays are 16-31-2, 3SOL for 37 points, in eighth place in the NAHL South Division, 10 points behind the Odessa Jackalopes for seventh, and 19 points behind the Oklahoma Warriors for sixth.
Lone Star is 40-10-3, 3SOL for 86 points, tops in the NAHL, and in first place in the NAHL South Division, 10 points ahead of the Shreveport Mudbugs.
The Brahmas finished the regular season 8-0 against the IceRays, while Corpus Christi is now 0-7-0, 1SOL in the eight meetings.
The IceRays will be on the road for three weekend series, beginning with games against the Odessa Jackalopes Friday, March 15 and Saturday, March 16 at 7:15 p.m. CDT.
Corpus Christi will close out the regular season at home with a couple of games against the Odessa Jackalopes, Thursday, April 4 at 10 a.m. CDT and Friday, April 5 at 7:05 p.m. CDT.
You can watch next weekend’s games on NAHL TV.
For more information, visit goicerays.com.
