Anthony Knuth notched the Texas hat trick with four goals and the El Paso Rhinos rolled to their sixth straight win, bouncing the San Antonio Diablos, 9-2, Sunday afternoon at the Sierra Providence Events Center.
El Paso only outshot San Antonio by four, 38-34, but Andrew Duff was stellar in net again. Duff followed his shutout Friday with 32 saves Sunday. He came into Sunday’s game with the Western States Hockey League’s best goals-against average at 1.46.
Though the visitors were close in the shot count, El Paso’s accuracy was too much to overcome for San Antonio netminder Anthony Maroney.
Knuth followed two goals in the first period with one in the second and one in the third to take home First Star of the Game against the Diablos.
Casey Lutz had two goals for the Rhinos as El Paso peppered San Antonio from all corners of the ice. Nick Gorup, Bill Krueger and Austin Balko also tallied for the Rhinos as El Paso improved to 34-2-1 with 69 points, opening up a 21-point lead over the second place Diablos in the Mid-West Division.
The Rhinos will head to third-place Tulsa for their final road trip of the season next weekend before returning home for the rest of their 2008-09 regular season in two weekends against the Texas Renegades.
For tickets and information, go to www.elpasorhinos.com or call the front office at 915.479.PUCK (7825).
