The Shreveport Mudbugs (1-1) fell short to the Wichita Falls Warriors, 6-4 to split their 2020-2021 season opening series Saturday night.
The Warriors opened up the scoring early just 35 seconds into the game when Jackson Salt tapped in his third goal of the season to give Wichita Falls the early 1-0 lead. The Bugs battled back in the period when Lukas Sedlacek made a slick move and faked out the goalie on the forehand and back-handed in his first tally of the season at 11:50 to tie the game, 1-1. Garrett Steele earned the only helper on the game-tying goal. Wichita Falls would respond at 17:19 when Adisen Bruek would score his second goal of the season from the LW circle to give the Warriors a 2-1 edge. The home team led in SOG, 10-9 after one period of play.
After a Warriors goal early in the 2nd period, Shreveport pulled their goalie Cullen DeYoung in favor of Luca Di Pasquo. The Mudbugs exploded with a pair of goals 58 seconds apart from Austin Brimmer and Lukas Sedlacek at 6:18 & 7:16 respectively to even the game, 3-3. Wichita Falls would stomp all the momentum Shreveport had with a goal from Mac Wiseman and a pair of tallies from Nick Lanigan at 11:56, 13:47, and 14:12 respectively to give the home team a 6-3 advantage. Shreveport surprisingly led in SOG, 32-18 after two periods of play.
The Mudbugs couldn’t muster much of a comeback attempt in the third period, but got a goal from newcomer Mason McCormick who was able to jam in his first goal in front to make it a 6-4 contest.
Shreveport out-shot Wichita Falls, 35-26 despite dropping their first game of the young season.
The Mudbugs will continue this road stretch to begin the season by taking on the Odessa Jackalopes next Friday and Saturday night from Ector County Coliseum. Puck drop is scheduled for 7:15 p.m. for both contests.