Texas Tornado make it a lucky 7 with 2-1 win

Mike it a lucky 7 for the Texas Tornado as the team goes 3-for-3 on this current road trip after a sweep of the New Mexico Mustangs last weekend, the road success continues as the team wins their 9th game of the season and is again tied for 1st in the South Division with the Amarillo Bulls with a hard fought 2-1 win against a Corpus Christi Icerays team that is getting known as a rough and tumble team to play against that is not afraid to take penalties and deliver hits all over the ice.

Of the 9 wins for the Tornado, 6 of the 9 have come away from the Dr. Pepper Arena (Including the Blaine Showcase). Despite only playing 3 games at the Dr. Pepper Arena so far, they going to get a lot of home games coming up with next weekend starting a string from now till New Years where 14 of the next 18 will be at home.

So this will be a chance for the Tornado to make a statement to the league that they are a major contender and get to bring in some big home crowds coming up as we enter November and December.

One player that has benefited from the recent rash of injures for the Tornado is Marc Biggs with him scoring his 4th goal in his last 5 games that dates back to the October 8 game against the Amarillo Bulls, he got a very crisp pass from a fresh J.D. Howard who recently returned after missing due to his own injury to set up the 2nd and game winning goal of the game in the closing seconds of the 2nd period to give the Tornado a 2-0 lead.

In addition to Biggs goal, Nathan Sliwinski also scored early on while Jimmy Kruger made 20-of-21 saves for the Tornado in the 2-1 win while Beau Walker scored the lone goal for the Icerays last night.

From the Texas Tornado Boster Club Website

Texas Tornado 2  Corpus Christi Icerays 1  (1-0, 1-0, 0-1)

From Corpus Christi, Texas: The Texas Tornado made their first trip to the American Bank Center in Corpus Christi to take on the Icerays.

The Tornado controlled play from the drop of the puck forcing three Icerays penalties with their skating and aggressive offense. Texas took a one goal lead on a power play nearly six minutes into the period. Alex Thieda took the puck down the boards through neutral ice and into the the offensive zone then sent the puck to the high slot for a Josh Royston touch pass to Nathan Sliwinski for a quick backhander.

Despite the tilt to the ice to the Tornado were only able to solve Marco Wiesner once in the period and took the one goal lead to the locker room for the first intermission.

The action in the second period came mostly with the gloves off. At the 5:10 mark Rodney Lalonde and Brandon Marshall dropped the mitts and sized each one another up as they circled. Once they came together Marshall started throwing rights immediately but was connecting with nothing but air. Rodney was patient for an opening before he started landing rights to the side of Marshall's head. Marshall was more active in the bout but Lalonde landed about 2-1 for the clear win.

They would be another fight at 19:27 into the period when Jimmy Kruger covered and a Tyler Parker started pushing in-front of the net. Michael Zagari took the challenge and dropped the gloves. The bout was pretty even with neither side really landing that much.

Off the faceoff after the fight, the Tornado worked the puck into the zone and Marc Biggs put the puck past Weisner with an assist from JD Howard in his first game since being injured on October 2nd in Topeka. Time of the goal was 19:49.

The fisticuffs started early in the third period. The puck was frozen along the far boards in the Tornado zone when Cody Miligan came hard into the scrum. Mico Solorzano took exception to the hit and and dropped the gloves. Once they came together, Miligan threw 4 quick rabbits punches. Mico came back with two big rights with the second landing square on Miligan's chin and sending him straight to the ice on his face and a decisive win for Solorzano.

The Icerays finally got on the scoreboard on a lucky bounce at the 4:03 mark. The puck went into the corner and Beau Walker tried to send a cross a centering pass out from front well behind the goal line and the puck went off Kruger's back and dribbled into the net.

The Icerays had an opportunity to tie the game at the 12:03 when they were awarded a penalty shot when Ralfs Fribergs was called for covering the puck in the crease. Replays showed that Fribergs was cleary outside the crease. On the attempt Mike Benedict, who is Corpus' leading scorer, took the puck wide left, brought it in and tried to make a move on Kruger. Jimmy stood tall and porked the puck away with the stick to perserve the 2-1 lead.

SOG for the game were 36-21 in favor of the Tornado. The Texas Power Play also came through again scoring once in nine opportunities while the penalty kill was perfect on two man advantages for the Icerays.

The Tornado remain in a tie for first place in the division and have an opportunity to take sole possession of the Division Lead with a win tomorrow against Corpus Christi as the two teams meet again Sunday Afternoon at 3:05 PM.