AMARILLO, TX/SHREVEPORT, LA- After last weekend’s sweep of the New Mexico Ice Wolves, The Mudbugs entered the Weekend against the Amarillo Wranglers at 7-1-1 as they looked to continue their 3 game winning streak on Friday Night inside the Amarillo Civic Center. The Wranglers meanwhile looked to continue their own momentum off of a mid-week win.
Late in the 1st Period of Friday Night’s Contest, Jeremiah Roberts found a way to score once again and put the Bugs up 1-0 at 04:04, but with 24 seconds left in the period and with the Bugs on the Louisiana Association for The Blind Penalty Kill, Leathen Bent and the Wranglers tied it up at 1 to send it to a tie game at the end of the 1st period. The Second Period saw Willie Tremblay put the Bugs up 2-1 and a wild period to boot. But the Third Period is where things picked up both in terms of Goals and much more. At 18:44 Jeremiah Roberts with his second goal of the night extended the Bugs’ lead by 2 while on the Scott Powerline PowerPlay then just 6 minutes later, Duke Ehrhard followed suit and extended the lead by 3 to make it 4-1. From there the Wranglers fired back with two quick goals to cut their deficit to 1 at 10:44. At 05:34, Jonah Jasser got his first of two goals to put the lead back up to 2, however the Wranglers came back with two quick goals to tie it up at 04:38. A minute later however saw Robin Israelsson get his 2nd goal of the season to put the Bugs back up 6-5, which was then followed up by a Duke Ehrhard goal to make it 7-5. The determined Wranglers however got one back and made it a one goal game, but finally at 01:11, the Captain Jasser put the final goal in the back of the Empty Wranglers net to make it 8-6 and that was the final score of Friday Night’s contest. Kristers Plepis was in net for the Bugs once again and stopped 19 of 25 shots.
Saturday Night was a much different (but somewhat same) affair as the Bugs once again jumped out to an early 1st Period lead off of goals from Evan Hoglund, Jason Simons and Gunner Gullstrand. The Second Period was a night-and-day looking period as there were no goals scored but there were a lot of penalties for both sides including at 10:05 where after a covered up puck after an Eli Shulman shot attempt, an old-fashioned donnybrook commenced. Multiple suspensions as a result have been handed out to several Mudbugs and Wranglers players and fines have been levied to members of the Mudbugs and Wranglers coaching staff. The Third Period saw the recently-named NAHL’s Bauer Hockey South Division Star of the Week in Gunner Gullstrand complete his hat-trick with two late period goals to not only make the final score 5-0 but also seal the weekend sweep of the Wranglers. Jack Greenwell got the start for the Mudbugs on Saturday Night and got the Shutout stopping all 16 shots in his second start of the season.
The Mudbugs are back at home this weekend October 16th and 17th against the Corpus Christi Ice Rays for Glo-tober Fest Weekend! The Pond will be decked out in Glo-paint and Friday Night will see not only Trick Or Treating before the game in the lobby of George’s Pond but will also see a costume contest for both Costumed Groups and Single Costumers alike! The details for the previously mentioned can be found our social media platforms. You can get tickets by either visiting tickets.georgespond34.com or by calling the front office at 318-636-7094 and the Family Four Pack is back this weekend as well, when you use the code “FAMILY” when purchasing tickets online you get 4 tickets, 2 bags of popcorn and 4 Pre Game Skate Passes on Friday or 4 Post Game Skate Passes on Saturday and you can contact the front office if you need more than four. Puck Drop for both games is scheduled for 7:11 PM CST
But if you can’t make it out this weekend to George’s Pond, you can watch the game on NATV or listen to the Mudbugs Audio Network audio-only stream on our YouTube Channel. Duncan Welker will be on the airwaves with the Landers Pregame Warmup show starting at 6:50 PM.