The Corpus Christi Icerays handed the Lone Star Brahmas a 3 – 2 shootout loss on Friday night. After not registering a win in three straight games the Brahmas needed to get things turned around quickly.
They jumped out to an early lead at 4:09 of the first as Jake Kupsky stopped a hard around behind his net leaving it for Johan Steen. Steen found Roman Uchyn at the far halfwall and he skated it out of the zone before sliding it to Peter Kessel at center. Kessel and Uchyn criss crossed with Kessel coming to the far wing and dropped it back to Uchyn and he ripped it stick side past Luke Pickar.
At 10:14 Caleb Thompson turned the cup over in the far corner to Nic Laburn who spun and found Frankie Melton streaking down the far side. Melton had a clear unobstructed path to the net and put it past Kupsky to tie things up.
Ryan Cusin put the Brahmas on the power play with an ill-advised hit on Uchyn well after an offside whistle. On the ensuing faceoff to Pickar’s right, Sebastian Vidmarknocked the puck loose from Wes Michaud in the corner to Ludvig Larsson at the near halfwall. Larsson saucered a pass to Oskar Andren all alone in front for a shot which Pickar managed to knock down with the glove. Andren stayed with the play and lifted his own rebound over the sprawled netminder with the backhand at 14:05.
At 13:52 of the second, Tanner Lomsnes and Michaud came rushing into the zone on a two on one with Lomsnes giving it to Michaud late, but Kupsky hugged the right post and made two big saves to keep the Icerays off the board.
Lone Star picked up another power play goal courtesy of a Cusin slash. On the play, AJ Vanderbeck pulled the puck out of a scrum behind the net and sent it to Hayden Hanson at the near point for a shot off the right post. Storm Wahlrab slid the rebounded across the crease to Uchyn on the back door for a shot into the open net. Time of the goal was 8:13.
The Icerays came right back just 31 seconds later when Laburn found a loose puck in the high slot and fired it past Kupsky with the assists going to Melton and Mason Kreuger.
However, Lone Star was not going to allow the Icerays to gain any momentum after controlling the puck on an offensive zone faceoff, Vidmar slid it to Anton Santesson at the far point. Pickar made the initial save on Santesson’s blast, but Larsson was there to roof the rebound at 9:54. At 11:21 Travis Howe, the league leader in penalty minutes and majors, jumped Uchyn from behind at center ice horse collaring him to the ice and throwing punches. One linesman jumped on Uchyn while the other tried to pull Howe off, but Howe continued to throw punches. Howe looked to stop momentarily until the linesman let go of him and he started throwing punches again. For his Hanson Brother’s impersonation, Howe received a 2 minute instigator, a 5 minute fighting major, a 10 minute instigator game misconduct and a 10 minute abuse of officials game misconduct. He should also be getting a short vacation from the league. With Howe’s clown antics the Brahmas ended up with a seven minute power play. When the puck dropped again, Larsson pulled the draw back to Vidmar who skated it to the goal line on the right before feeding it out front to Andren for a onetimer into the twine just seven seconds after the Howe penalties.