The New Mexico Ice Wolves secured their first win of the season Saturday, Sept. 21 against the Corpus Christi IceRays. The Ice Wolves were pouring the shots on goal but for the second straight night Nikita Volsky was impressive. The IceRays would score first on the powerplay as Lars Petter-Eckholm deflected a shot from Matteus Soderbom. Ethan Hull and the Ice Wolves would respond just over two minutes later and tie the game up at one on a big rebound opportunity. Three minutes later Andy Earl would net his first NAHL goal with a tremendous shot from the right-wing side and giving the Ice Wolves would take their first lead of the season. The IceRays would not go quietly into the first intermission when Gavin O’Hara scored his first NAHL goal with just five seconds remaining and it would be tied heading into the break.
The second period saw more terrific goaltending on both sides. For the Ice Wolves Brendan Holahan made his debut making 19 saves on 21 shots in the victory. The lone goal in the second period would be the game winner as Johnny Johannson would score on the rebound and give the Ice Wolves a 3-2 lead.
The third period saw quality chances on both sides, but the puck stayed out of the net on both ends. The Ice Wolves would kill off a penalty as time ran out and secured the 3-2 victory. Kevin Hartzell saw both good and bad from the team tonight, “On many levels we’re happy for the boys. The guys that didn’t play last night, Liam Waugh, Time Hewko, and Adrian Marek all contributed very nicely overall. The number of poor quality of penalties is unacceptable and at the end of the day we’re lucky and had puck luck. We have to be better.”
The Ice Wolves and IceRays play the rubber match Sept. 22 at 2:00 p.m. MT tickets are still available at https://tickets.nmicewolves.com/ or you can watch on NATV and selecting home audio.