Tuesday, 01.02.18 / 10:07 pm CT
In a hectic, up-and-down tilt, the Mudbugs outlasted the IceRays in the shootout on Tuesday night for the second straight game and edged them by a 6-5 score.
Conor Yawney was penalized just 18 seconds into the affair, but the Rays effectively killed off the ensuing Shreveport power play. However, at 3:48, the Mudbugs struck.
Jacob Skolnik fired a shot from the right point, and Ryan Burnett redirected the puck from between the hashmarks inside the left post past Jacob Acton to open the scoring.
Cam Cook doubled the Bugs’ lead at 13:16, locating a rebound on the right side of the net and tapping past Acton. However, the Rays answered before the opening period came to an end. Following a scramble in the Shreveport slot involving Brendan Miller and Garrett Hallford, the puck was swatted up toward the blue line. Finding it after all the confusion, Matt Acciaioli ripped it off the inside of the left post and into the net, beating Gustavs Grigals before the defenders knew what had happened. The Rays entered the first intermission trailing 2-1.
It only took Corpus Christi 47 seconds into the second period to tie things up. Miller cleaned up a rebound left by Grigals and leveled the score, but Shreveport quickly regained its lead.
Back-to-back goals by Brendan Van Sweden and Jay Feiwell put the IceRays in a 4-2 hole a quarter of the way through the middle stanza. At 8:37, Aleksi Peltonen and Rylee St. Onge came together to chip away at the deficit. Peltonen left a crafty drop pass behind him at the top of the right circle. St. Onge skated by, scooped up the puck, and sniped it perfectly inside the left post to bring the Rays to within a goal.
He wasn’t finished. Late on the IceRays’ second consecutive power play, which moved the puck exceptionally well on Tuesday, St. Onge received a circle-to-circle pass from Julien Makary. St. Onge skated into the left circle with possession and rifled the puck past Grigals to re-tie the game 4-4.
Just 23 seconds later, Jordan Fader scored on a shot from a nearly impossible angle on the left side of the net, giving a Shreveport a 5-4 edge heading into the third period.
By comparison to the rest of the game, the third period was relatively uneventful. Noah Roofe was the lone goal scorer, lighting the lamp at 13:28 following an Angus Scott stuff attempt. Roofe’s fifth goal of the season forced overtime, which was underway for the ninth time in the IceRays’ last fifteen games.
Miller nearly sealed the game on a breakaway in the three-on-three, putting the puck on his backhand and skimming the right post with his attempt. Acton stopped all three Mudbugs shooters to extend the shootout to a fourth round, but could not stop Roberts Baranovskis, who lifted a backhand shot over his left pad to end the game.
Acton made 37 of a possible 42 saves in his fourth overtime defeat, while Grigals denied 21 of 26 in his 11th win of the season. The IceRays will take on the Lone Star Brahmas at NYTEX Sports Centre on Friday, January 5th and Saturday, January 6th. The games will be broadcast on HockeyTV.com and on SportsRadio Corpus Christi. Puck drop is scheduled for 7:30 pm CT.
