Amarillo, TX – The Shreveport Mudbugs defeated the Amarillo Wranglers by the score of 5-1 at the Budweiser Bull Pen on Thursday afternoon. The afternoon game was the Kids Day Game in Amarillo.
Connor McDonough got the start in goal for the Wranglers, making his 12th start of the season. McDonough carried a record of 7-3-1, a 2.54 GAA, and a .907 save percentage coming into the game. The Mudbugs started Carson Dorfman in goal, who had a record of 4-4, a 2.63 GAA, and a .887 save percentage entering the contest.
The Mudbugs opened the scoring 5:14 into the first period when Logan Heroux scored his sixth goal of the season unassisted to make it 1-0. Shreveport scored again 11:22 into the period when Lucas Deeb picked up his fourth of the year from Reed and Parcika to make it a 2-0 hockey game.
The Wranglers started the second period on the power play but were unable to score. Not long afterward, the Mudbugs got a power play chance of their own and got a goal from Wil Murphy 3:33 in to make it 3-0. After the third Shreveport goal, McDonough was replaced by Luca Ganz. Hayden Nichol and Colin Vassallo earned assists on the power play tally. Amarillo responded with a power play goal by Connor McNaughton to cut the deficit to two with 6:19 remaining in the second frame. Roman Zap and Trey Williams picked up assists on the goal. Towards the end of the period with 5:21 to go, Divyne Apollon was given a 5-minute major and a game misconduct for fighting, which the Wranglers were able to kill off.
In the third period, Lucas Deeb scored his second of the game to make it 4-1 with 12:27 to go, with assists coming from Reed and Park. Park later scored his own goal with 7:56 remaining to make it a 5-1 game. Reed notched the lone assist. With the loss, the Wranglers fall to 9-6-1 on the year.
Amarillo will look to bounce back on Friday night when they host the Mudbugs for the final game of the two-game set. Puck drop will be at 7:15, you can get your tickets at panhandletickets.com or catch all the action on NATV.