The Shreveport Mudbugs (7-4) got a pair of goal from Gleb Akimov and breezed by the Amarillo Wrangers, 5-1 to grab their fifth straight victory overall at George’s Pond in Hirsch Coliseum Friday night.
The Bugs got one of the luckiest goals you’ll ever see at 4:00 of the opening period when Kyan Haldenby was dumping the puck in and it took a lucky bounce and into the net to give SHV an improbable 1-0 lead. The refs looked at it on goal review to make sure it wasn’t an automatic icing and they ruled it was a good goal for Haldenby. AMR responded at 18:03 as Corson Maguire threw a shot towards the net which was stopped then pinballed in from the SHV blueline and into the net evening the score, 1-1. The Bugs would respond a minute later as Gleb Akimov had a shot stopped and then off the rebound it deflected off the Wranglers defender and into the net giving SHV a 2-1 lead at 19:12. Akimov’s third goal was assisted by Bode Wise and Seth Murch.
SHV took advantage of an odd-man rush at 2:19 of the second when Haldenby fed a perfect puck for Aidan Puley to power through for his third tally of the year to make it a 3-1 Bugs lead. The two-time Robby Cup Champs extended their lead at 10:08 when Haldenby picked up his third point of the evening as he put a perfect feed to Brent Litchard who fired home his fourth goal of the campaign from the short side to make it a 4-1 contest. The Bugs led in SOG, 28-17 after two.
Akimov raced into the offensive zone at 3:29 of the third period and he tallied his second goal of the night clobbering home a missle from the slot in front to push the SHV lead to 5-1. Liam Doyle earned the only helper.
Aden Gariepy made 27 stops to earn his fifth straight win in net.
The Bugs and Wranglers will conclude their two-game series tomorrow night. Puck drop is scheduled for 7:11 p.m. from George’s Pond in Hirsch Coliseum and stick around after the game as our “Halloween Glow in the Dark” themed specialty jerseys will be auctioned off after the game.