Corpus Christi, Texas – The Corpus Christi IceRays fell to the New Mexico Ice Wolves 5-3 Friday night at American Bank Center.
Rasmus Leijonhielm scored a pair of goals for New Mexico, while Ty Tuccitto, Ryan Johnson and Graham Harris each added one.
Stepan Kuznetsov netted a pair for the IceRays, while Zakhar Polshakov chipped in another.
Corpus Christi IceRays New Mexico Friday Night At American Bank Center
Corpus Christi, Texas – The Corpus Christi IceRays fell to the New Mexico Ice Wolves 5-3 Friday night at American Bank Center.
Rasmus Leijonhielm scored a pair of goals for New Mexico, while Ty Tuccitto, Ryan Johnson and Graham Harris each added one.
Stepan Kuznetsov netted a pair for the IceRays, while Zakhar Polshakov chipped in another.
“We played really good hockey,” IceRays head coach Sylvain Cloutier said. “We deserved better.”
The IceRays outshot the Ice Wolves 39-28.
“To outshoot a team and get nothing, that’s disappointing,” Cloutier said.
New Mexico was 2-for-3 on the power play while the IceRays were 1-for-2.
“The kids played hard,” Cloutier said.
Corpus Christi is 3-8-0, 0SOL in its last 11 contests and 6-10-0, 1SOL in its last 17 games.
Overall, the IceRays are 15-28-1, 3SOL for 34 points, in eighth place in the NAHL South Division, 10 points behind the Odessa Jackalopes for seventh, and 18 points behind the Oklahoma Warriors for sixth.
New Mexico is in fifth place in the NAHL South at 23-15-6, 2SOL with 54 points, two points ahead of the Oklahoma Warriors, and six points behind the Amarillo Wranglers for fourth.
Corpus Christi is 1-3-0, 1SOL against New Mexico this season, while the Ice Wolves are 4-1-0, 0SOL against the IceRays.
New Mexico took a 1-0 lead in the first period on Leijonheilm’s 13th goal at 10:02.
Tuccitto scored his third of the year at 11:53 and the Ice Wolves led 2-0 at the first intermission.
The IceRays bounced back on Kuznetsov’s 11th of the season one minute into the second period.
Polshakov netted his seventh of the year from Nikita Konevych and Zack Homer at 6:27 to tie the game at 2-2.
But Johnson scored his 27th of the year at 11:09 and New Mexico led 3-2 heading into the final period.
Leijonhielm scored his second of the night and 14th of the year at 9:38 of the third to make it 4-2.
Kuznetsov made things closer from Luca Fasciano and Michael Valdez at 12:18.
But Harris closed out the scoring at 17:06.
You can watch the games on NAHL TV and listen on Brewster Street Radio.
For more information, visit goicerays.com.
