The Shreveport Mudbugs (1-0) welcomed the Houston Bulls back to the South Division with a 4-1 victory, featuring an all-veteran scoresheet, in front of a near-capacity crowd (3,434) at George’s Pond on Friday night.
After a pregame tribute honoring the heroes who sacrificed it all on 9/11/2001, Duke Erhard got the party started early, striking for the game’s first goal four minutes into the game, stealing the puck off a turnover and making the most of it. Houston scored on a Bugs turnover not long after that at the 14:46 mark, coming from Noah Callender, knotting the game up at 1. Evan Hoglund would push the Bugs back in front, scoring with 8:11 remaining on the 1st period clock, bringing the Bugs up 2-1 into the 1st break.
William-Alexis Tremblay added a pair of his own, the first on a feed from Jason Simons, in the waning moments of the middle frame and then another on a beautiful backdoor feed from Evan Hoglund, coming in the opening 1:20 of the 3rd period. That capped off the scoring for the contest, and the Bugs took the 4-1 win.
In his Bugs debut, Michael Heinke picks up the win, stopping 15 of 16 Houston shots. Aaron Sachs, in net for Houston, suffers the loss, allowing 4 goals on 32 from the Bugs.
The opening weekend series concludes on Saturday at George’s Pond, slated for a 7:11pm puck drop. Tickets are still available at tickets.georgespond34.com or by calling the Mudbugs Box Office at (318) 636-7094. The game is available on NAtv or via audio stream on the Mudbugs YouTube. Pregame coverage begins at 6:50.