The Shreveport Mudbugs (5-6-3) scored three unanswered goals in the 2nd period, but couldn’t hold it and stumbled to a 4-3 defeat in the shootout to the Amarillo Wranglers at the Amarillo Civic Center Saturday night.
Shreveport got off to a roaring start with a few great scoring chances in the opening period, but couldn’t cash in. Amarillo though cashed in on their first quality opportunity as Anthony Vidrick had some space in the RW circle and zipped in his third goal of the season to give the Wranglers the early 1-0 lead at 9:01. SOG were 9-6 in favor of Amarillo after one.
The Mudbugs exploded in the 2nd period starting off on the PP when Garrett Steele threw a perfect short side to Austin Brimmer who tapped in his third tally of the season to tie the game, 1-1 at 7:11. Johnny Hallard earned the secondary helper on the Bugs’ first goal of the game. Then Shreveport would get great work down low from Connor Gatto and Steele and feed Tim Khokhlachev who jabbed in his third goal of the season in front to give Shreveport their lead of the series at 2-1 at 10:34. The reigning champs would add on when Hayden Nichol and Patrick Roginski would do more grinding work down low behind the net and find Logan Gotinksy who would hammer home his second goal of the campaign and push the Bugs’ edge to 3-1 at 17:16. Amarillo would come back with a fluky goal at 19:52 on the PP when Glebs Prohorenkovs would squeeze a puck past Devon Bobak along the far post to make it a 3-2 contest. Shreveport led in SOG, 23-21 after two.
Amarillo would even the score at 11:22 of the third period when Logan Cleary would rifle home his fourth tally of the season from the RW circle as the puck hit off the post and into the net to make it a 3-3 contest.
The game would stay tied sending the contest into OT where both teams had their chances, but neither team could cash in which extended the game to a shootout.
In the shootout, the game-winning goal was scored from Yaroslav Samadov to lift Amarillo over Shreveport 4-3 in the shootout.
The Bugs will continue their season-long road trip next Friday night as they’ll battle their arch-rival in the Lone Star Brahmas from the Nytex Sports Centre. Puck drop is scheduled for 7:30 p.m.