SHREVEPORT, LA – The Corpus Christi Ice Rays (1-0-0) open their season with a convincing 5-1 victory over the Shreveport Mudbugs (0-1-0) at George’s Pond at Hirsch Coliseum Saturday night. Dating back to last season, this marks the second straight win for the IceRays in Shreveport and second consecutive game of holding the Mudbugs to just one goal in the contest.
The 1st period saw plenty of action from both sides but both goaltenders rendered all the offensive chances mute after the first 20. Mudbugs net-minder Nikola Goich made 10 saves in the period including two stops on breakaways from IceRays defensemen Max Ranstrom and forward Cody Kempf. Shreveport ended the period with a flurry of chances against IceRays goaltender Nikita Volsky who turned aside three of his nine shots in the frame to hold the score 0-0 heading into 1st intermission.
Corpus Christi took the game and score over in the 2nd period when the IceRays struck for three goals in the span of eight minutes. Stephan Kuznetsov broke the scoreless tie with a wrist shot from the slot off a centering feed from Troy Pelton. Just over two minutes later, Goich lost sight of the puck when Carter Krenke slipped behind the net and left the puck in his trail for Will Reardon who buried it into a mostly empty net to double the IceRays lead. Later in the period, Kuznetsov found himself in the box for the second time with Shreveport looking to strike. The IceRays held strong on the kill as they did the whole night holding Shreveport 0-for-5 on the power play. As Kuznetsov’s penalty expired, he found himself out of the box and on a breakaway, he went on to slip a backhand through the five hole of Goich and give Corpus a 3-0 lead. It was also Kuznetsov’s 46th career goal which set a new franchise record for all-time goals passing Eric Purcell who played for the IceRays from 2010-2014.
Kuznetsov’s 2nd goal: https://x.com/NAHLHockey/status/1835136314804519366
The IceRays picked up right where they left off in the second when Michael Valdez went between his legs through multiple Mudbugs defenders and beat Goich with a shot off the post and in to open up a 4-0 Corpus Christi lead. The Mudbugs would add their one and only tally of the night when Andrew Seminara got loose and beat Volsky who finished the night with 27 saves in the win. Billy Biedermann added the 5th goal of the night for Corpus just two minutes later to cap off a 5-1 win in the season opener.
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