INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. – The Missouri Mavericks took their sixth straight win of the season over the Indy Fuel on Tuesday night, outlasting the home team 5-3. Andrew Courtney, who has played his entire professional career with the Missouri Mavericks, played in his 300th regular season game on Tuesday.
Courtney appeared in his first game with the Mavericks on Mar. 11, 2011 wearing the number 28, which he would don for seven more games that season. He went on to surpass every player in team history for games-played, and set the franchise single-season goal record wearing his now iconic number 27.
The Mavericks took a strong stand over the Fuel at the Indiana Famers Coliseum on Tuesday evening, owning a 4-1 scoreboard over Indy by the midpoint of the third period. The Fuel came back with an aggressive 2-goal rally in the final minutes of regulation to come within 1 point of the league-leading Mavs, but Matt Finn’s empty-net goal sealed a 5-3 victory for Missouri with just 41 seconds left on the clock.
Bryce Aneloski was first to the board, with a goal just 5:03 into the opening period, assisted by Tyler Barnesand Kellen Jones. Indy answered back via Daniel Ciampini to tie the game halfway through the second period with a power-play goal, but the Mavs took back the lead at 10:07 when Barnes scored with the help of teammates Jesse Root and Jones.
Then the milestone Mav himself scored to boost the Mavs up 3-1 over the Fuel just 56 seconds into the third period. Courtney took a feed from Rocco Carzo for his sixteenth goal of the season. Carzo followed that up with his own tally at 14:24, assisted by Ross Johnston and Courtney.
Indy was able to bounce back with 2 quick goals less than 3 minutes apart via Adam Lapsansky and Ben Marshall to tighten the scoreboard gap, 4-3, with 1:06 to play in regulation.
Matt Finn scored the unassisted empty net goal that would give the game firmly back to the Mavs at 19:19.
The Missouri Mavericks play their next two games on the road, facing-off tomorrow evening against the Fort Wayne Komets at 6:30p.m. (CT).
With Missouri Mavericks release