The Shreveport Mudbugs (11-6) fell into an early hole and made a late push, but came up short to the Odessa Jackalopes, 3-2 ending their win streak at five games Friday night at Ector County Coliseum.
Two early fights involving Dilan Peters and Rais Francis handcuffed the Bugs in a rough and tough 1st period. Odessa struck with tallies from Ben Thomas at 12:15 and Aeden Drossos at 14:54 to give the Jacks an early 2-0 lead. The Jacks led in SOG, 10-5 after one period of play.
Odessa added to their lead on the PP in the 2nd period as Matt Hutton was able to hammer home a tally at 10:49 to extend the Jacks’ lead to 3-0. The Bugs squandered a 4 on 3 man advantage later in the period and found themselves shutout for the second straight period despite out-shooting the home team 21-18 after two periods of play.
The Bugs roared back early in the 3rd period when Conor Witherspoon wired home his fourth goal of the year from the RW circle. It was a PP goal just a minute into the period and it put the Bugs on the board at 3-1. Then at 6:53, the Mudbugs took advantage of another PP opportunity as Jacob Smith raced through the slot and backhanded home his fourth tally of the year pulling Shreveport within one goal at 3-2. That would be the closest the Bugs would get as the Odessa goalie made some big stops in the reigning minutes to preserve a 3-2 Jacks victory over the Bugs.
Shreveport had their five-game winning streak snapped.
The Bugs and Jacks will conclude their two-game series tomorrow night, Nov. 2nd with puck drop scheduled for 7:15 p.m. from Ector County Coliseum.