Thursday: El Paso Rhinos 2 @ Corpus Christi IceRays 6 – Rhinos travel down to Corpus Christi Thursday evening for the start of a new series to face off against the IceRays. Blake Lewis and Hans Ulvebne take one goal a piece for the IceRays to set an early 2-0 lead over the Rhinos. As we head into the second period E.J. Janda brought the fight to the IceRays with one goal for the Rhinos. The Rays’ Connor Burst returned the favor by answering with one goal of his own as we end the second period with a 3-1 Corpus Christi lead. Blake Lewis would score his second goal of the night early in the third, followed by two back-to-back goals by Stephan Kuznetsov and Dylan Contreras, giving the IceRays three more goals. Ultimately it would be the Rhinos to get the last word in as Jeffery Hammond scores the final goal of the night. Corpus Christi would end the night with a 6-2 victory over the Rhinos.
Friday: El Paso Rhinos 5 @ Corpus Christi IceRays 4 – Rhinos & IceRays returned to the ice to round out this two-game series. IceRays would come to the rink tonight attempting to keep the energy from last night’s win going by taking two goals early in the period. Logan Neilson & Hans Martin Ulvebne both scored before the 4:00 mark and it would not be until Tristan Kimmen finally broke through the Rays’ defense to score Rhinos first goal at 12:42. Headed into the third period the IceRays would lead over the Rhinos 2-1. The second period would only see a single goal from Cameron Crolley to increase Corpus Christi’s lead to 3-1 going into the third. The IceRays would have one final push in the start of the period as Oleksii Dakhnovskyi scores at just 1:25 into the period. This sparked the start of some fast-paced gameplay as the Rhinos would go on to score 3 goals in the next few minutes. Reid Lune, Luke Morris, & Mark LaFrance quickly tied up the game at 4-4 all within the first five minutes of the period. The clock would continue to tick down with neither team able to score again, sending the game into overtime. With one final push Tristan Kimmen scores the game-winning goal in OT to give the Rhinos a 5-4 over the IceRays
