The Shreveport Mudbugs (5-9-4) couldn’t recover from another late period goal and were defeated by the El Paso Rhinos, 5-2 Saturday night at the El Paso County Coliseum.
El Paso got on the board first at 10:06 of the opening period when Jack Anderson fired a shot from the left wing which was good for his first goal of the year to give the Rhinos an early 1-0 lead. Shreveport struggled to get anything going offensively for most of the first period, getting out-shot 14-5, but killing off three penalties against them.
The Rhinos got another tally on a broken play at 6:09 of the 2nd period when Anderson struck in his second goal of the game with a shot from the high slot to give El Paso a 2-0 edge. The Bugs roared back though at 6:47 when Logan Valkama skated in from the short side and roofed in his second goal of the season to make it a 2-1 contest. Shreveport would then tie the game up on the PP when Tyler Behl would smash a puck towards the net which was stopped, but it was Austin Brimmer who poked home the rebound for his sixth goal of the season to make it a 2-2 contest at 8:26. El Paso would go back ahead at 19:19 when Alex Krause crashed the net and slipped in his seventh goal of the season between the pads of Simon Bucheler to give the Rhinos a 3-2 advantage.
El Paso would grab a two-goal lead again at 9:16 of the third period when Jan Olenginski would wire home his third goal of the season from the point to push the Rhinos lead to 4-2. The Bugs just couldn’t get much going in the final period and Frank Tafelski would tap in an EN goal at 19:21 to seal a 5-2 victory over Shreveport.
The Mudbugs have lost six straight and nine of their past ten games.
The Bugs will conclude their longest road trip of the season against the talented Odessa Jackalopes. Game 1 of the two-game series will be next Friday night at Ector County Coliseum with puck drop scheduled for 7:15 p.m.