JOURNAL SPORTS
The Shreveport Mudbugs couldn’t hold an early two-goal lead and fell to the Amarillo Wranglers, 3-2 at George’s Pond in Hirsch Coliseum Saturday night to miss a chance to slip ahead of the visitors into third place in the early NAHL South Division standings.
Shreveport won the opener Friday night 5-1, led by two goals from Gleb Akimov and another strong turn in the net by goalkeeper Aden Gariepy, who made 27 stops. Saturday’s loss halted a five-game win streak for Gariepy and the Mudbugs, who are off this week and will travel to Amarillo in two weeks.
The Bugs (7-5) got off to a fast start for the second straight game Saturday night at George’s Pond as Aidan Puley took a perfect feed from Akimov in the slot and wired home his fourth goal of the year to give SHV a 1-0 lead at 2:05 of the opening period. Shreveport added to the lead at 8:54 when Kyan Haldenby took a gift of a rebound in front and smacked in his third tally of the year to make it 2-0.
Amarillo responded w/ a goal from Grayson Gerhard at 16:23 to make it a 2-1 score after one.
The Wranglers found the equalizer at 5:45 of the second period. Amarillo moved up at 11:43 of the third period and. That lead held up despite a late surge by the Bugs.
Friday night, the Bugs got one of the luckiest goals you’ll ever see at 4:00 of the opening period when Kyan Haldenby was dumping the puck in and it took a lucky bounce and into the net for an improbable 1-0 lead. The refs looked at it on goal review to make sure it wasn’t an automatic icing and they ruled it was a good goal for Haldenby.
Amarillo responded at 18:03 as Corson Maguire threw a shot towards the net which was stopped then pinballed in from the SHV blueline and into the net evening the score, 1-1. The Bugs went on top for good a minute later as Akimov had a shot stopped and then off the rebound it deflected off the Wranglers defender and into the net giving SHV a 2-1 lead at 19:12. Akimov’s third goal of the season was assisted by Bode Wise and Seth Murch.
Shreveport took advantage of an odd-man rush at 2:19 of the second when Haldenby fed a perfect puck for Puley to power through for a 3-1 Bugs lead. At 10:08 the Bugs struck again when Haldenby picked up his third point of the evening as he put a perfect feed to Brent Litchard who fired home his fourth goal of the campaign from the short side to make it a 4-1 contest..
Akimov raced into the offensive zone at 3:29 of the third period and tallied his second goal of the night, clobbering home a rocket from the slot in front to push the SHV lead to 5-1. Liam Doyle earned the only helper.