The Shreveport Mudbugs (7-5) broke out of their powerplay woes and got great goaltending to glide past the Topeka Pilots, 4-1 Saturday night at the Events Center.
The Bugs snapped out of a 0 for 20 PP drought when Sam Miller smacked in his third goal of the year from the RW circle giving Shreveport an early 1-0 lead at 10:51 of the 1st period. Topeka came right back when their Captain Austin McCarthy shot in his seventh tally of the season at 14:11 knotting the score, 1-1. The Bugs’ Captain came right back at 19:01 and took a perfect pass from Steele to the slot and rifled home his second tally of the year top shelf making it a 2-1 contest in favor of the road team. SOG were tied 6-6 after one period of play.
The game stayed 2-1 in favor of the Bugs throughout the whole second period, but it was Richie Parent who made some big stops to keep it that way. Topeka led in SOG, 16-15 after two periods of play.
The Bugs extended their lead just 53 seconds into the third period when Jack Smiley redirected home his second goal of the year on the PP making it a 3-1 contest. Girard earned his second assist on the night. Shreveport put the icing on the cake at 11:07 when Garrett Steele started a 2 on 1 rush and Tim Khokhlachev finished in front with a hard shot for his third tally of the year to make it a 4-1 lead for the Bugs.
Richie Parent would grab his second straight personal win making 23 saves in the game including some big and tough ones throughout the game.
The Bugs will finally return home to George’s Pond in Hirsch Coliseum next Friday night for a two-game series against their playoff foe in the Corpus Christi Ice Rays. Puck drop is scheduled for 7:11 p.m.