FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Jan. 26, 2013
JACKS FALL 6-3, EARN SPLIT VS. CORPUS
Portner, Volonnino score, Cornellier, Olguin stay hot in front of over 3,700 fans.
ODESSA, TX– With over 3,700 screaming fans in attendance, the largest home crowd of the season, the Odessa Jackalopes fell to the Corpus Christi IceRays by a final score of 6-2 Saturday at Ector County Coliseum. With the loss, the Jacks earned a weekend split with the ‘Rays, fell to 6-32-2 overall this season and with 14 points, remain alone in 6th place in the NAHL’s South Division standings.
Unlike Friday’s 4-3 Odessa win, in which the Jacks took an early lead, it was Corpus lighting the lamp just three minutes in, when goals from Rudy Sulmonte at 3:43 and Lucas McDiarmid just ten seconds later, staked the IceRays to a 2-0 lead. An unassisted, shorthanded Emil Romig score at 8:50 extended the Corpus Christi lead to three and a Wayland Williams marker at 4:36 of the second pushed the ‘Rays edge to its largest point at 4-0.
An Odessa response finally came at 15:11 of the middle frame, when Taylor Portner knifed home his fifth goal of the season and second in as many nights, on feeds from Anthony Olguin and Lawrence Cornellier. With the assist, Cornellier (23G, 22A, 45 Pts) capped off a five-point weekend after notching two goals and two assists on Friday and Olguin (10G, 8A, 18 Pts), now Odessa’s second leading scorer, had a four-point weekend haul, after a three point effort an evening ago.
Matt Volonnino pulled into third place alone in the Jacks’ goal-scoring race at 16:01 of the second, when he buried his sixth of the season on a transition wrister from Matthieu Audet and Corey Hoffman, but a pair of third period IceRays goals, from Beau Walker at 1:14 and a Brandon Smith empty-netter with two seconds to go in regulation, sealed the win for Corpus Christi.
Pulled midway through the first period, Nick Deery allowed three goals on the nine shots he faced, but his replacement, newcomer Erick Majerle, was rock-solid in Deery’s stead, stopping 18 of the 20 IceRays shots he encountered in his Jackalopes debut.
Next up for the Jacks, it’s a three game home series vs. the Wichita Falls Wildcats starting Thursday at 7:05 pm at Ector County Coliseum.
In 2012-13, the Odessa Jackalopes drop the puck on their second season as a member of the North American Hockey League. Season ticket packages for the Jacks’ sophomore campaign are available now starting at just $179. To reserve your seats, contact the Jackalopes’ ticket office today at 432-552-7825 or log on to www.jackalopes.org for more information.
Be sure to follow the Jackalopes on Twitter @LetsGoJacks all season long and don’t forget to ‘Like’ the official “Odessa Jackalopes” fan page on Facebook.
— ODESSA JACKALOPES —
