The New Mexico Ice Wolves dropped a hard-fought game Friday, Oct. 4 against the Corpus Christi IceRays. The first period saw each team have one powerplay opportunity that was unsuccessful and a goalie clinic by Brendan Holahan and Nikita Volsky. The Ice Wolves out shot the IceRays 14-9 in a scoreless first period.
The second period saw more of the same from the goalies and each team unable to score on the powerplay during the period. The IceRays would break through first when Colin Watson scored his first goal of the night 16:11 into the second period. Watson would again find the back of the net, depositing a rebound just 42 seconds later for a 2-0 lead. The IceRays weren’t done there as Raymond Perrault would score on the break away for a 3-0 lead all three goals being scored in 2:42 of game time in the period.
The Ice Wolves would start the third period with a bang when Ben Polomsky scored his first NAHL goal to bring the Ice Wolves within two goals. Unfortunately, that would be all Nikita Volsky allowed, making 40 saves on 41 shots during the game. Stepan Kuznetzov would add an empty net goal for a 4-1 final.
Head Coach Kevin Hartzell had this to say after the performance, “Tonight, was probably the best game we played all year start to finish we had 41 shots and looked like a hockey team all night and the puck just wouldn’t go in the net for us to the point where I almost feel bad for the boys because you deserve better. After the game I said one thing I love about hockey is it’s not very fair sometimes only recourse is to keep working until our luck changes. If we play like we did tonight the tide will turn.”
Both teams will meet tomorrow at 7:35PM CT/6:35PM MT and all the action can be seen on NATV.