Corpus Christi, Texas – There’s an old saying, “it’s not how you start, it’s how you finish.”
For the Corpus Christi IceRays, a strong finish was nice, but it still didn’t yield a victory.
Trailing 5-0, the IceRays rallied with a four-goal flurry over a seven-minute stretch in the third period before finally falling 7-4 to the Maine Nordiques Saturday morning in the final game of the NAHL Showcase in Blaine, Minnesota.
The loss dropped the IceRays to 1-3 in the young season with a mixed bag of emotions from losing close games to seeing teammate Wolfgang Govedaris injured in Friday’s 4-3 loss to the Minot Minotauros.
“Obviously, it wasn’t the week we wanted,” IceRays head coach Sylvain Cloutier said. “We would’ve liked to finish at least .500. The guys showed character coming back. I wasn’t sure how they’d react being down 5-0, but we had some pushback, which was nice to see.”
Anthony Cafarelli, Billy Biedermann, Arvid Lundberg Broback and Pierson Sobush each netted a goal for the IceRays.
Nick Romeo led Maine with a pair of goals, while Kim Hilmersson, Charles Tardif, Grant Dietz, Jake Bernadet and Jack Kurrie scored for the Nordiques.
Vilgot Holm 39 saves for Corpus Christi.
“If it wasn’t for Holm, it could’ve been a lot worse,” Cloutier said. “Our penalty killing was excellent again. I think we’re 27-for-29 right now.”
Maine jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first on goals by Hilmersson and Romeo.
Romeo would collect his second of the game and fifth of the season at 17:56 of the second period to give Maine a 3-0 lead after two periods.
Tardif and Dietz put Maine on top 5-0 in the third before the IceRays caught fire.
Cafarelli scored his third goal of the season just 14 seconds after Dietz’s goal to put Corpus Christi on the board.
Biedermann scored his first of the year less than two minutes later, on the power play, to make it 5-2 Maine.
Lundberg Broback got his second of the year at 11:40 with the man advantage, and Sobush collected his first tally at 13:14 to make it a one-goal game.
That’s as close as the IceRays would get as Bernadet and Kurrie scored late goals 10 seconds apart to close out the victory.
“Our power play finally got going, but we didn’t get the result we wanted,” Cloutier said.”
The IceRays will now set their focus on next weekend’s home opener against the El Paso Rhinos Friday and Saturday night at 7:05 at American Bank Center.
Notes: Govedaris, who was injured hitting his head against the boards after losing his helmet Friday, did not play Saturday.
“Hopefully we will get an update here and reevaluate him when we get home this weekend and go from there,” Cloutier said.
If you can’t make it to the games, you can watch them on NAHLTV.com.
Single game tickets for IceRays home games are on sale now on Ticketmaster.com.
Single Game tickets are $38 for Glass, $32 for Lower Bowl, and $26 for Upper Bowl.
Season tickets for the 2023-24 season are still on sale as well.
For information, please contact Michelle Evans at 361-814-7825, Ext. 104.
