Friday: Corpus Christi Ice Rays 4 @ El Paso Rhinos 5 – Ice Rays pay themselves a visit to the Sun City this past weekend for the first of a two-game series! Rhinos are prepped for some early game attacks to push the advantage and the IceRays get hit with some penalties while trying to regain their footing. At just over five minutes in to the period Ethan Woolcott takes the first goal of the evening for the Rhinos. Time ticked down and the battle heated up with penalties thrown out left and right and even a fight breaking out halfway through the period. With 7:35 left on the clock in the first, and the Ice Rays on man advantage, Islom Dzhabberganov gives Corpus Christi a powerplay goal to tie the game at 1-1.
The second period saw only a single, shorthanded goal from Gaige Giblin to take back the lead for the Rhinos. Scoreboard reads 2-1 with Rhinos leading at the start of the third period and we got to see the games’ tension explode all at once. Starting us off this period Charles Turner makes it 3-1. Rhinos started breaking away but the IceRays begin a campaign to take back lost ground. Marc-Alexandre Richard cuts the lead back within one point with five minutes to go. Sam Troutwine and Chase Nehring take two more for Corpus Christi to steal back the lead. Ice Rays are up 4-3 with a little over a minute left in regulation time and the Rhinos put one last plan in to action and Ian Kastamo snags one final goal to tie up the game, sending us in to overtime.
Tommy Shore scores the winning goal for the Rhinos in OT for a 5-4 victory over Corpus Christi to round out game #1.
Saturday: Corpus Christi Ice Rays 3 @ El Paso Rhinos 9 – After a full days rest the Rhinos & IceRays return to the ice to see who’ll come out on top of Game #2! The puck dropped here on Rhino Ice to a welcome crowd and a visiting team hungry for a road win. First half of the period was relatively uneventful but after the ten-minute mark the fists start flying. We’ve got some roughing and holding penalties split between both teams and after restart Troy Hunka took the first goal of the day. Jackson Potulny makes it 2-0 just a couple minutes later with yet another, but the Rhinos aren’t backing down yet. Ian Kastamo takes himself a goal off of a powerplay with just under two minutes to go in the first and Rhinos are up 3-0 by first intermission.
We’ll see this momentum continue in the second period as Charles Turner widens the gap, followed by Kamden Kaiser off of a power play and Samuel Anderson to double the Rhinos’ lead to 6-0 with 8:11 left to go in the second. With the clock running down William Stewart finally puts the IceRays on the board thanks to a powerplay man advantage given just 10 seconds prior. Unfortunately for Corpus Christi they get hit with a powerplay of their own, ceding yet another goal to the Rhinos with just 8 seconds to go in the second period. 7-1 is the score now with Rhinos leading before heading in to the third.
The third period finds the IceRays pushing themselves to keep up with the ever-widening gap and Johnny Maruna manages to snag himself a shorthanded goal with 14 minutes left on the clock. However Kaiser takes another one for the Rhinos and as we approach the last ten minutes of the game the IceRays trail behind the Rhinos at 8-2. Aidan Bergner earns himself a goal putting the Rhinos up to 9, but one final goal from Islom Dzhabberganov puts the final score at 9-3, Rhinos out in front.
