The Shreveport Mudbugs (34-21-5) scored five times in the game and thrashed the El Paso Rhinos, 5-0 in the regular season finale at George’s Pond in Hirsch Coliseum Saturday night.
Shreveport struck first with one of their leaders in the opening period when Austin Brimmer skated through the Rhinos blueline and flipped in his 20th goal of the season from the LW circle in one of the greatest goals of the season to give the Bugs a 1-0 lead at 11:51. Evan Mitchell earned the only assist on the game’s first goal. Bugs led in SOG, 7-5 after one.
The Bugs got another tally at 13:35 in the 2nd period on the PP when Connor Gatto rifled home his 17th goal of the year from the slot to make it a 2-0 contest. Davis Goukler and Logan Valkama earned the helpers on Gatto’s tally. Shreveport extended their lead less than a minute later at 14:16 when Logan Gotinksy created space in the LW circle and slipped in his 10th goal of the campaign to push their lead to 3-0. Lukas Sedlacek and Hayden Nichol earned the assists. Shreveport put the icing on the cake at 18:49 when Burke Simpson finished off a tic-tac-toe PP goal for his 15th tally of the year to make it a 4-0 contest. Gatto and Brimmer started the play and picked up the assists.
The Bugs put the icing on the cake at 15:20 of the third period when Nik Miller redirected home his seventh tally of the year after Logan Valkama threw a centering feed in front. The latest goal closed out a convincing 5-0 Shreveport victory over El Paso.
Simon Bucheler earned his 2nd shutout of the year after making 21 stops on the night.
The Bugs will enter the 2022 Robertson Cup Playoffs as the 4th seed and take on the top seeded Lone Star Brahmas in a best-of-five first round playoff series. Game 1 will be next Friday night from the Nytex Sports Centre. Puck drop is scheduled for 7:30 p.m.