The Shreveport Mudbugs (21-17-5) scored a season-high seven goals to blow out the Corpus Christi Ice Rays, 7-1 at the American Bank Center Friday night.
Shreveport erupted in the opening period and it started with Connor Gatto who raced through the slot and backhanded home his 12th goal of the year to put the Bugs up 1-0 at 11:05. The goal was possible thanks to great work down low from Burke Simpson and Austin Brimmer who earned the helpers on the opening tally. The Bugs would then strike at 15:59 when Logan Furstenau threw an initial shot off the glove of their goalie and swept in the rebound along the far side for his second goal of the season to push the Shreveport edge to 2-0. Drake Morse and Logan Heroux got the puck up to him and picked up the assists on the play. The reigning champs would capitalize just 31 seconds later at 16:30 with Heroux finding a perfect feed through the slot Logan Valkama and firing home his first goal as a Bug to make it a 3-0 contest. Valkama and Jacob Onstott would officially earn the helpers to cap off a huge opening frame for Bugs hockey. Shreveport led in SOG, 17-9 after one.
The Bugs picked up where they left off in the 2nd period at 1:31 when Logan Gotinksy went top shelf from the RW circle for his sixth tally of the season to make it a 4-0 contest. The Bugs would then score on a busted play with a loose puck which was drilled home from Drake Morse for his fifth goal of the year at 7:14 to increase the advantage to 5-0. Gotinksy would crash the net and score another as he hammered home a rebound in front for his second goal of the game at 10:38 to make it a 6-0 game. Corpus Christi would score a goal at 15:09 on the PP to get on the board from Trey Zagrzebski to make it a 6-1 contest. The visiting team would put another icing on the cake in this period as Timofei Khokhlachev who go coast to coast and roof in his ninth goal of the season from the short side to cap off a four-goal period for the Bugs and a 7-1 edge.
Both teams would just go through the motions in the third period as neither team wanted to get too involved or make a mistake as the Mudbugs completed a 7-1 victory over the IceRays.
Devon Bobak earned his 17th win in net making 17 stops on the night.
The Bugs and Rays will conclude their two-game series tomorrow night at the American Bank Center. Puck drop is scheduled for 7:05 p.m.