Corpus Christi, Texas – the Corpus Christi IceRays came out with heavy intensity before falling to the Shreveport Mudbugs 5-3 Saturday afternoon in Shreveport, Louisiana.
Arvid Broback, Nils Forselius and Connor Brust each scored goals for the IceRays, who lost for the second-straight day, but showed a marked improvement on Day 2.
“We played a good game, but we probably had a lapse of six or seven minutes where we gave up those two goals, so that kind of hurt us,” IceRays head coach Sylvain Cloutier said “I guess it’s preseason and early, but way better effort today.”
Corpus Christi, now 0-2 in the preseason, will have cuts to make Sunday as Coach Cloutier plans to cut from 36 players to a streamlined 26 he plans to take to Blaine, Minnesota for the NAHL Showcase.
“We have some tough decisions to make tomorrow,” Cloutier said. “We’ve got a week to get ready for Oklahoma and then four days after that to get ready for Blaine.”
The IceRays got on the board first with a goal by Broback off a nice assist from Mathieu Bourgault at 1:41 of the first period.
Corpus Christi took a 2-0 lead on a backhander by Forselius at 11:33 in the first period.
Brust scored at 8:24 in the second period to give the IceRays a 3-2 lead.
But the Mudbugs scored three times to nab a 5-3 lead and hold on for the win.
“We came out super strong in the first period and I thought we dictated the play, buzzing, making plays and making passes.” IceRays defenseman Wolfgang Govedaris said.” We were creating offensive chances and I think we let off the gas a little bit for about 6 minutes and they kind of took advantage.”
Govedaris feels good closing out the preseason and heading into the regular season.
“We still haven’t played our real team yet and most of those are returning guys,” Govedaris said. “So once we get everyone situated on the team and get them going, I think it’s going to be a much different season.”
The IceRays will close the preseason at Oklahoma this Friday, September 8 at 7:10 p.m. before opening the regular season at the NAHL Showcase, Wednesday, September 13 against Aberdeen at 4:30 p.m.
Season tickets for the 2023-24 season are on sale now.
For information, please contact Michelle Evans at 361-814-7825, Ext. 104.
