CORPUS CHRISTI, TX – The IceRays and Bulls combined for eight goals in the second period and Rudy Sulmonte had two of them, but it wasn’t enough as Amarillo scored late to pick up a 5-4 win in front of 3,711 fans at the American Bank Center on Sunday afternoon.
In the first period both teams had several scoring opportunities including a Joe Ginley short-handed breakaway that was denied by Bulls netminder Collin Delia with just seconds remaining in the first.
In the second period the scoring soared as the two teams combined for eight total goals setting a new season high. It started with Eric Purcell who picked up a loose puck at the top of the circle and tallied his 15th of the year beating Collin Delia at the 2:53 mark.
Amarillo responded with an even-strength goal at 4:04 off the stick of Mike Davis, his 28th on the year with assists to TJ Sherman and Matt Sieckhaus and the score was even at one goal apiece.
Rudy Sulmonte regained the lead for Corpus Christi with his team leading 25th of the year just 52 seconds after the Davis goal. Sulmonte took a great pass from Nick Monfils at the left wing boards and beat Delia for a 2-1 lead.
Amarillo scored the next two goals to take their first lead of the night first courtesy of Tyler Rostenkowski who wristed a shot by Ben Myers from inside the left wing circle after taking a feed from Hampus Gustafsson 6:29 into the second period to even the score at two.
While the IceRays were on a power-play, Omar Mullan knocked down the puck and went in on a breakaway beating Myers 8:31 into the period, a short-handed goal, and the Bulls led 3-2.
Caleb O’Brien answered with a power-play goal on a scrum in front of the net to tie the game. The puck was gathered by O’Brien who back-handed a soft shot through the screen that made its way through Delia for his 5th of the year and 3rd as an IceRay.
The seventh combined goal in the period came on a similar play but from Tyler Gernhofer who back-handed through a screen picking up his second goal in as many games at 14:29 and Amarillo pulled out to another lead, their second of the period 4-3.
Just when it looked like the IceRays would go into the 2nd intermission trailing by a goal Emil Romig sent the puck to the front of the net and Rudy Sulmonte got his stick on it beating a sprawling Collin Delia with just 1.6 seconds left in the middle period to tie the game at four all.
The Bulls replaced goaltender Collin Delia to start the third with Paul Berrafato and tallied a late goal by Matt Sieckhaus beating Myers over the shoulder from the right wing circle propelling Amarillo to a 5-4 victory and their first sweep of Corpus Christi all season.
Ben Myers stopped 36 of 41 shots in the loss. Corpus Christi remains 2pts in front of 5th place Wichita Falls with just two games remaining, both against Odessa this upcoming weekend.
The IceRays are home for the final two games of the regular season this weekend as they take on the Odessa Jackalopes. Puck drops at 7:05PM, coverage begins at 6:50PM with the IceRays Pregame Show on sportsjuice.com, ustream.com, the TuneIn Radio APP, 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)
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