CORPUS CHRISTI, TX – Eric Purcell and Grant Hutton each scored twice as the Corpus Christi IceRays fired on all cylinders Friday night burying five power-play goals and getting a perfect performance in net from Ben Myers en route to an 8-0 victory over the Lone Star Brahmas in front of 2,526 fans at the American Bank Center.
Corpus Christi started a fury of scoring in the first period at the 2:48 mark as Eric Purcell came out of the penalty box, the veteran forced a turnover and went in all alone jamming the puck behind Brahmas’ goaltender Jacob Nehama for a 1-0 lead. The goal was unassisted.
A bouncing puck benefitted the IceRays at the 11:48 point of the opening period. A huge crowd in front of the net caused the puck to hop up in the air and deflected down to the crease where Martin Hojbjerg got the last touch on it for a 2-0 lead over the Brahmas. Assists were credited to Tony Roisum and Malo Ville.
The struggling power-play for the IceRays looked in top notch form. Maurin Bouvet fed a pass on the man advantage to Grant Hutton who wired a one-timer by Brahma goaltender Jacob Nehama at 15:24 of the first to take a 3-0 lead.
The second period power-play for Corpus Christi was unstoppable. Kyle Froese started the second period scoring off a tic-tac-toe passing play between Wes Michaud, Malo Ville, and the Hojbjerg twins that ended with a one-timer from Froese top shelf giving the IceRays a 4-0 lead at 11:49 of the period.
Purcell tacked on his second goal of the night at 12:42 of the second period sliding the puck past a diving Jacob Nehama with the assist from Tony Roisum for a 5-0 lead over the Brahmas.
Malo Ville got in on a power-play action with a goal of his own off nice assists from Martin Hojbjerg and Wes Michaud at 13:26 to take a 6-0 lead. The Ville tally was a part of three goals on the same power-play.
After the Ville goal, Jacob Nehama was replaced by former IceRays goaltender Sean Keating.
Purcell set up Grant Hutton at the point with a one-timer that beat Keating, his second of the night with only 1:14 left in the period to move Corpus Christi out to a 7-0 lead. The other assist was tacked on by Caleb O’Brien.
In the third period Lucas Bennett scored his second goal of the season and made it 8-0 assisted by Purcell and O’Brien at 10:41 of the third.
Ben Myers picked up his first win of the year, and first shutout as well denying all 21 shots he faced.
The IceRays host the Brahmas tomorrow night to finish out the weekend series. Puck drops at 7:05PM, coverage begins at 6:50PM with the IceRays Pregame Show by clicking “Listen Live” on the IceRays website, ustream.com, or fasthockey.com.
Stay current with the latest team news by visiting www.goicerays.com. In addition stay connected with the IceRays on Facebook (/corpuschristiicerays), Twitter (@goicerays), and the team’s Youtube channel ICERAYS TV (@goicerays)
