By ROY LANG III, Journal Sports
For 60 minutes Saturday night on George’s Pond at Hirsch Coliseum, the Shreveport Mudbugs unleashed hard hits, timely goals and anything else they could in an effort to complete a sweep of the Corpus Christi IceRays.
When the final horn punctuated a 5-2 Shreveport victory, Mudbugs forward Ryan Burke immediately led his team to Corpus Christi forward Wolfgang Govedaris to deliver hugs and encouragement.
Govedaris lost his good friend Abakar Kazbekov, who died suddenly on Friday night. The 18-year-old Kazbekov played for the London (Ontario) Knights, the club that produced former Mudbugs such as Chris Brassard and Scott Sheppard.
“I have a really good friend (on the Knights’ team), so I reached out to him today,” said Burke, a London native. “I just thought it would be nice to check on (Govedaris). I know he’s struggling. I had buddies who have passed away. I just wanted to tell him, ‘Shreveport’s behind him, we’re all behind him and we’re one big family.’”
Shreveport general manager Scott Muscutt offered Govedaris condolences before he got on the team bus. He said Govedaris was extremely appreciative of the support shown by the Shreveport franchise, which included a pregame moment of silence.
“We stick each other, we fight each other, but in the end we all come from the same family,” Muscutt said. “There is nothing we go through that someone else in extended family hasn’t gone through. The close-knit community is one of the reasons I love (hockey) so much.”
Shreveport enters the Christmas break winners of eight of its past 10 games and is now tied for third place in the North American Hockey League’s South Division.
The Mudbugs will have a two-game set on the road at Corpus Christi to close out the calendar year and then look forward to spending the entire month of January at home.
“We got the four points we needed,” said Burke, who is flying home for the Christmas week. “I’ll think about hockey for most of the time, but I’m going to enjoy it with family and friends and rest up.”
Last week’s 3 Stars
- Garrett Steele, the captain opened the scoring in Friday night’s 3-1 victory and added another goal Saturday.
- Simon Bucheler, another weekend, another two victories between the pipes.
- Kason Muscutt, posted his third goal of the season Saturday and is the ultimate pest in the corners every night.
NAHL South Division standings
Lone Star (21-2-4), 46 points
Oklahoma (20-5-1), 41
New Mexico (15-10-2), 32
Shreveport (14-10-4), 32
Amarillo (13-9-3), 29
Odessa (12-14-1), 25
El Paso (10-15-1), 21
Corpus Christi (6-17-5), 17
*top four make the playoffs
Team leaders
Goals: Garrett Steele, 11
Assists: Logan Heroux, Jaden Goldie 13
Points: Drake Morse, 18
Penalty Minutes: Maksim Sushchynski, 66
Game-winning goals: Hayden Nichol, 3
Goals-against average: Simon Bucheler, 1.98
Save percentage: Bucheler, .919
Up next
The Mudbugs have the holiday weekend off before they ready for a series at Corpus Christi on Dec. 29-30.
Contact Roy at roylangiii@yahoo.com