CORPUS CHRISTI, TX – Zach Quinn stopped all 34 shots he faced and Sebastian Fuchs added three points as the Kenai River Brown Bears kicked off their Texas road trip with a 4-0 victory over the Corpus Christi IceRays in front of 3,912 fans at the American Bank Center on Friday night.
In the first period of play it was Kenai River who had to kill off three straight power-play that the IceRays were awarded and came out of the period only holding Corpus Christi to eleven shots. In the process, the Brown Bears also scored one goal on four shots of their own. On an off angle, Sebastian Fuchs put a shot on net that was denied by goaltender Ben Myers. The rebound went right to a patiently waiting Tyler Andrews who snuck in from the defensive position and scored his 6th goal of the year with assists from Fuchs and Albin Karlsson at 10:08 of the first period for a 1-0 lead.
There was no scoring in the second period of play until the Brown Bears notched a late tally for a two goal lead. A pass from the bottom of the left wing circle by Jacob Davidson found a wide open and pinching Vincent Stefan who ripped in his 6th goal of the year with just 1:37 remaining in the period for a 2-0 Kenai River lead after 40 minutes of play.
The IceRays couldn’t get anything going in the third period of action as Brown Bears goaltender Zach Quinn turned aside every shot he faced while his team added a pair of goals to their two goal lead. The IceRays were all caught on the right wing wall and that allowed Frankie Spellman to take a breakaway pass from Sebastian Fuchs beating Myers on a backhand over the left leg pad for a 3-0 lead at 4:50 of the final period in regulation. The secondary assist was collected by Alec Butcher, his first helper of the night.
The back-breaker for the ‘Rays came at 8:47 of the third frame as Fuchs finally got in the scoring column while on the power-play. Alec Butcher found a wide open Fuchs inside the right wing circle and hit him with a hard pass the was one-timed by a sprawling Ben Myers at 8:47 of the third period and Kenai River took a 4-0 lead with the other assist going to Austin Chavez.
Goaltender Zach Quinn held on for the shutout while making 34 saves on the night.
The IceRays return home tomorrow night for Pink in the Rink Night vs. Kenai River! Puck drops at 7:30PM, coverage begins at 7:15PM with the IceRays Pregame Show on sportsjuice.com, ustream.com, and fasthockey.com.
Stay current with the latest team news by visiting www.goicerays.com. In addition stay connected with the IceRays on Facebook (/corpuschristiicerays), Twitter (@goicerays), and the team’s Youtube channel ICERAYS TV (@goicerays)
