Friday: El Paso Rhinos 5 @ Corpus Christi IceRays 2 – Rhinos hit the road again this weekend for our second to last series of the regular season, this week in Corpus Christi as we prepare for Game #1!
First period is on us and the puck drops to a rowdy crowd where Rhinos are in top form. Raphael Laviolette takes the first goal of the night early in the period and puts us up 1-0 over the Rays, a sign of things to come. Gage Giblin & Tommy Shore both round out the period taking two more goals, one off a power play, to set the score at 3-0 before the IceRays can even fight back.
Kamden Kaiser hits is deep in the second period with the teams’ fourth goal of the night, but that would be the only goal for this 20 minutes.
It took the IceRays two whole periods to push through Rhino defense, but they finally manage to take a goal with 15:37 left in the third as Justin Thibault puts them on the board. Jack Mackenzie takes their second goal of the night not too far behind, but Rhinos maintain a 4-2 lead. With one last goal from Troy Hunka the Rhinos would solidify their win at 5-2.
Saturday: El Paso Rhinos 2 @ Corpus Christi Ice Rays 3 – IceRays didn’t take too kindly to a defeat on home ice after last night’s defeat at the hands of the Rhinos and return tonight with a brand new motivation to fight our boys for Game #2.
Puck Dropped in a similar fashion to last night as Rhinos take the early game lead with Jacob Solano taking point. Kamden Kaiser rounds out the first period with a goal in the last minute of the first to set Rhinos up 2-0 over the IceRays.
IceRays take the first intermission to reassess their strategy and are back at puck drop for some revenge. James Chase and Nick Evans take two late period goals to tie up the game at 2-2 with the Rhinos unable to break through.
With stamina and patience running low on both ends of the ice both teams throw themselves at eachother for the final 20 minutes to no avail. We end the third period still tied at 2-2, sending us into overtime where still no scoring would be seen. Finally in the shootout the IceRays would take the ultimate goal to take Game #2 with a 3-2 win.
