By ROY LANG III, Journal Sports
The Shreveport Mudbugs focused on a couple of things during a recent break – putting the puck in the net, especially on the power play.
Talk about immediate results.
“The boys came back and did a job we needed to do,” Mudbugs head coach Jason Campbell said.
The Mudbugs put a cap on a five-week road trip with a sweep of El Paso – 4-1 on Friday and 4-2 on Saturday. Not only did Shreveport tie its season-high in goals on back-to-back nights, half of the pucks that found the net came on the power play.
The Mudbugs entered the weekend near the bottom of the North American Hockey League in power-play efficiency, but made the Rhinos pay on four of the seven opportunities with a man-advantage over the weekend.
“That’s huge – especially how things have been so far,” Campbell said. “We’re super happy, obviously. It was nice to score more than two goals a game.
“We have some guys who can really wire the puck. You have to work to get the opportunities to let it go.”
In addition to his team opening the flood gates around the net, Campbell was thrilled with how his squad responded to the rough stuff.
“I wouldn’t even call it dirty, El Paso was trying to set a tone, too,” Campbell said. “We had a couple scraps Friday and another Saturday.”
Nick LeVasseur completed a Gordie Howe hat trick with a tussle midway through the third period Friday. Matthew Danzinger also dropped the gloves 25 seconds later. Saturday, Hayden Nichol had a second-period fight.
“I liked the ways the guys stepped up and dropped the gloves,” Campbell said. “Our guys stood in there against some tough players.”
The Mudbugs return to George’s Pond at Hirsch Coliseum with a series against New Mexico beginning Friday.
Last week’s 3 Stars
- Nick LeVasseur, recorded a Gordie Howe hat trick (goal, assists and fight) in Friday’s victory. His goal opened the scoring and sparked a weekend sweep.
- Logan Gotinsky, scored a power-play goal Friday and added an assist.
- Eric Vitale, opened the scoring Saturday, just 86 seconds into the game. Closed things out with a power-play tally in the third period.
NAHL South Division standings
Oklahoma (17-2-1), 35 points
Lone Star (16-2-2), 34
New Mexico (13-6-1), 27
Amarillo (11-8-1), 23
Shreveport (9-9-4), 22
El Paso (8-12-0), 16
Odessa (7-12-1), 15
Corpus Christi (5-14-3), 13
*top four make the playoffs
Team leaders
Goals: Logan Gotinsky, Garrett Steele, 6
Assists: Jaden Goldie, Drake Morse, Logan Heroux, 9
Points: Morse, 13
Penalty Minutes: Maksim Sushchynski, 62
Game-winning goals: Goldie 2
Goals-against average: Simon Bucheler, 2.25
Save percentage: Tommy Aitken, .915
Up next
The Mudbugs return home for the first time since October when they host New Mexico on Friday and Saturday (7:11 p.m.).
Contact Roy at roylangiii@yahoo.com