CORPUS CHRISTI, TX – In his final career regular season game at the American Bank Center Stephan Kuznetsov registers a Hat-Trick in an offensive explosion by the Corpus Christi IceRays (33-14-5) as defeat the Shreveport Mudbugs (31-17-5) by a final score of 7-2. The IceRays set a new franchise single season record with 33 win and go four points clear of the Mudbugs in 2nd place in the South Division with 71 points.
The IceRays dominated the Mudbugs in the 1st period outshooting the Mudbugs 17-6 and outscoring them 3-1. Will Reardon started the scoring for Corpus Christi on a snapshot that surprised Mudbugs Goalie Aden Gariepy who had a start to forget. Exactly five minutes later Kuznetsov would score his first of the night on a pass that deflected off a skate right to his blade and sent the puck into the top corner for a 2-0 IceRays lead. Shreveport would strike next on the second power play goal of the weekend by Angel Lovecchio to cut the lead in half. The IceRays would punch right back 15 seconds later with Carter Krenke’s 16th goal of the season to extend his point streak to a team high 10 games. Cooper Conway also picked up two assists in the period to extend his point streak to seven games. Gariepy was pulled out of the net after the third goal and replaced by Nikola Goich.
Shreveport would get one back from Foster Nichol to get the Mudbugs back within one moments after serving a minor penalty. With a 3-2 lead, the trio of Krenke, Conway and Kuznetsov combined again for the second goal of the night for Kuznetsov. Corpus Christi poured it on in the aftermath extending their lead to three with a perfectly place wrist shot by Nikita Konevych. Late in the period the IceRays would go on the power play and Kuznetsov capped off his Hat Trick with a power play goal with nine seconds remaining in the period to make it 6-2 heading into the final period. Cody Kempf would tack on one more goal for good measure in the 3rd period to seal off an emphatic victory for the IceRays by a final score of 7-2. The IceRays finished the season 20-7-3 at the American Bank Center. They will play their last seven games on the road before the hit the Robertson Cup Playoffs.