SOUTHAVEN, Miss. – For anyone who travels for work, the road can be a challenging place to achieve success. When the opportunity presents itself to return home from a road trip, it can provide comforts which cannot be experienced in a foreign place. Such was the case Tuesday night when the Mississippi RiverKings began a season-long, nine-game, 24 day home stand with a 3-1 win against the Bossier-Shreveport Mudbugs.
The action started early when the RiverKings opened the scoring just over a minute into the game. As Dave Marshall crossed the blueline, he drew both defensemen closer to him and threaded a nifty saucer pass through the slot to Matt Summers who slid the puck through the legs of surprised Mudbug goalie John Decaro. It was Summers’ team-leading 15th goal and set the tone for the home team as they battled for an early edge against the perennially strong Mudbugs.
As the period carried on, Mississippi continued to hit hard, stepping up on the play and being sure the Mudbugs had no room to move. The aggressive style led to three Mudbugs power plays the last half of the period thwarting any RiverKings momentum. RiverKings goalie Alexander Pechurskiy kept the home team in the game with four brilliant saves during the power plays including key saves on two odd-man rushes. The Riverkings earned their first power play late in the period and had several chances, but Decaro kept them at bay. Mississippi led in shots 8-4 at the end of the first period and held onto their 1-0 lead.
In the second period, Pechurskiy continued right where he left off, stopping a sustained flurry of six quality shots in the first two minutes. Four minutes in, the RiverKings went back on the penalty kill when Louis Dumont earned his second minor penalty of the game, for interference. Pechurskiy continued his strong, focused play – seeing all shots sent his way and not giving up any rebounds.
Just over five and a half minutes in though, hard work by the Mudbugs along the near boards led to success in finally lighting their side of the scoreboard. Michael Couch pinched in at his right point and sent a quick pass to a wide open Shawn Limpright who wasted no time putting in a one-timer that caught a surprised Pechurskiy off-guard and knotted the game 1-1.
The remainder of the period featured a goaltending duel with Decaro and Pechurskiy putting on a display of confident, well-made saves to keep their teams tight and in the game. Pechurskiy was at his best during a thirty-second span late in the period when he came up with three, point-blank saves within a thirty-second. After 40 minutes, the Mudbugs had overtaken the advantage in shots 16-14, a marked improvement from the first period.
Unfortunately for Bossier-Shreveport, the RiverKings were not to be stopped in the final frame. They came out with strong skating and several waves of attacks that led to quality chances. It was due to the find goaltending of Decaro that they came away with nothing.
Although the Mudbugs pressured and there was balance between the two teams through the first half of the period, the RiverKings managed to break through at the 9:17 mark. Matt Boyd took a loose puck in the neutral zone and headed up ice with Chris Richards to his right. Boyd sent a crisp pass across to Richards who drew the defenseman toward him before dropping a slick pass in the high slot to a trailing Jeff Christian who went in all alone on Decaro. Christian stick-handled in close before a left deke and sent the puck into an open net on the stick side of the Bossier-Shreveport netminder for the tie-breaking 2-1 lead.
Then things got worse for the Mudbugs. Just five minutes after Christian’s goal, Bossier-Shreveport defenseman Tim Jorgensen was sent off for tripping Mississippi forward RG Flath behind the Mudbug goal. The ensuing power play allowed the RiverKings to increase their one goal lead and it took just a hundred seconds to do it. With 3:43 left in the final period, Darrell Stoddard took a soft Louis Dumont feed from behind the net and put a snap shot between Decaro’s pads to secure what would be the final score at 3-1.
Although Decaro vacated the Bossier-Shreveport net with just over two minutes to go to provide for an extra attacker, the Mudbugs couldn’t press enough for a goal and dropped their fourth straight contest and 10th in their last 13 games.
Mississippi finished the game with a 23-20 advantage in shots. They improved to better than .500 and now possess a 19-18-1 record while the Mudbugs fall to 21-15-1.
The RiverKings next home game will be Friday, January 21st against the Dayton Gems, in which Defenseman Derek Landmesser will be playing in his 600th Central Hockey League game.
Contact the writer at dennis.morrell@prohockeynews.com
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