Bugs Rally Late to Top Bulls & Even Series

May 22, 2021

The Shreveport Mudbugs (1-1) rallied with a goal late in the third period and then provided an OT tally to come from behind and beat the Amarillo Bulls, 2-1 Saturday night to even the best-of-five 1st round playoff series, 1-1 at George’s Pond in Hirsch Coliseum.
Both teams came up empty in the opening period as both Cole Hudson and Andrew Takacs came up with big saves from Shreveport and Amarillo respectively. The Bugs led in SOG, 11-8 after one.
After a scoreless first period, Amarillo scored the game’s first goal off a rebound blast from the slot from Harrison Scott for his first goal in this series to give the Bulls a 1-0 lead just 52 seconds into the middle frame. The Bugs had a lot of offensive zone time, but nothing to show for it as Amarillo led in SOG in the period, 12-6.
The Bugs looked dead in the water in the third period, but it was the man nicknamed “Grandpa Joe” Joe Mack who took a brilliant cross-ice feed from Dawson Sciarrino and rifled home the game-tying goal with 35 seconds left in the game. Mack’s first goal of the playoffs came with the extra attacker on and brought the packed house off its feet. The goal came at 19:25 as Sciarrino and Gio Procopio earned the assists sending the game into sudden-death OT.
It only took 4:13 into OT when Austin Brimmer slid to the top of the point and made a nice pass to Billy Feczko from the RW circle who fired home the game-winning goal to lift the Bugs to a dramatic 2-1 victory evening the series, 1-1.
Cole Hudson earned his first playoff win in net making 29 saves on the night.

The Bugs and Bulls will shift their series to the Amarillo Civic Center for game 3 next Thursday night. Puck drop is scheduled for 7:05 p.m. ​