CORPUS CHRISTI, TX – The Corpus Christi IceRays (24-9-3) bounce back at home with a convincing 6-2 win over the El Paso Rhinos (18-16-2) on Friday night at the American Bank Center. The IceRays outshot the Rhinos 33 to 15 on the night including a 13 to 1 advantage in the 1st period. El Paso has now dropped their last five games.
“The first two periods we played unbelievable; 3rd period was a lack of discipline that got us but overall, it’s nice to get back in the win column. This is what we expect out of ourselves, we expect to win, the last few games we haven’t been playing up to our standards and it was nice to get back to how we are supposed to be playing,” said IceRays Goalie Vladislav Bryzgalov following the win.
The IceRays tilted the ice from puck drop and made Rhinos Goalie Matthew Dellarusso very busy in the opening period having to face a total of 13 shots. On the flip side, Bryzgalov only saw one shot in the frame from Rhinos Forward Rasmus Nousiainen. It was just a matter of time before the IceRays would find the back of the net and it came off the stick of Cody Kempf who fired a rocket into the top corner for an IceRays 1-0 lead with nine minutes left in the period. Both teams would receive a power play in the frame but were unable to convert and the IceRays went to the intermission with the advantage.
After killing off their second penalty of the game to begin the 2nd period, Carter Krenke scooped up a loose puck and went end-to-end finishing it off with a beautiful shot over the glove of Dellarusso extending the two. Corpus Christi would get a few opportunities up a man to add to the lead but came up empty on their looks despite numerous chances. Just before the final minute of the period, Stephan Kuznetsov was given a double minor for roughing and unsportsmanlike conduct penalty giving the Rhinos a chance to cut into the IceRays lead. However, that would not be the case as Troy Pelton charged up ice along with Pierson Sobush. Pelton would feed it to Sobush who twisted it through the five-hole of Dellarusso for his second shorthanded goal of the season to make it 3-0 heading into the third.
Corpus Christi would not slow down from there with still plenty of time remaining on the Rhinos power play to start the final frame. The IceRays would get free again with Billy Bierdermann who rifled a shot past the Rhinos net-minder to make it 4-0 IceRays. Biedermann would follow up with his second of the game on a deflection off the shot of Matteus Soderbom who returned to action after missing the last five games. It was Billy’s sixth goal of the season en route to a three-point night for Biedermann. In between a couple of power play goals for El Paso, Cooper Conway deflected a shot home for the IceRays sixth goal of the night. Corpus Christi would close it out from there in a bounce back 6-2 victory on home ice.