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Thursday, October 26, 2000

Avalanche of penalties buries IceRays
Fort Worth brawls its way to first triumph at Corpus Christi's expense, 6-2
By Matt Young
Caller-Times

Caller-Times

A scramble takes place in front of the Corpus Christi net Wednesday, seconds before Fort Worth scored during the Brahmas’ 6-2 victory over the IceRays.

The Corpus Christi IceRays are supposed to be winning games with defense and physical play this season. While both have been evident for the IceRays, its their overly physical play that has gotten them into trouble.
   The IceRays piled up 58 penalty minutes and an ejection to a key player, which proved to be too tough to overcome. This time, it was Fort Worth that benefitted from the IceRays overly rough play as the Brahmas skated past Corpus Christi 6-2 Wednesday at Memorial Coliseum. "It was a very, very frustrating game and not just because of the result, but because Fort Worth was hungry for 60 minutes, and we weren't," IceRays coach Taylor Hall said. "You can't win hockey games when you have five or six guys playing their best hockey and the rest aren't."
   It was the Brahmas first win of the season. After winning their first three games of the season, the IceRays (3-2-1) are riding a three-game winless streak.
   "We've made the same mistakes over and over again in the last three games," Hall said. "We're a totally different team from the first three games of the season. In the first three games, we looked like we had a real commitment to winning. Now, we've looked flat for three straight games."
   The loss gets the IceRays off to a bad start on a grueling four-day stretch. Corpus Christi plays at Central Texas at 7:05 p.m. today, plays Central Texas at the coliseum Friday and travels to Lake Charles for its fourth game in four days Saturday.
   Fort Worth's Stefan Simoes scored the game-winning goal with 10 minutes, 18 seconds left in the game. Simoes took the rebound off a Sean Brady shot for the game-winner. The Brahmas added three goals, including two empty-netters, in the final three minutes of the game to make for the lopsided score.
   Simoes' goal was the capper for an extremely physical game that featured two ejections and three 10-minute major penalties. The IceRays got the worst of the ejections as they lost their leading scorer Kurt Wickenheiser late in the first period. Fort Worth's Mike Tilson was ejected at the conclusion of the second period.
   Wickenheiser lost his cool after being checked high and from behind right in front of the Fort Worth net. After Wickenheiser got back to his feet, he went after his attacker and was ejected.
   "Every day in practice we talk about not taking penalties, especially retaliation penalties," Hall said. "Retaliation penalties are selfish penalties. Sometimes you have to take a punch to the face or a stick to the head to be a part of a winning hockey team. It's not just one person, it's everyone letting their emotions get the best of them."
   Simoes' goal opened the flood games for a four-goal outburst in the third period. Fort Worth's Justin Cardwell added an unassisted goal with 3:55 remaining to put the IceRays away. Cardwell and Casey Hungle also each added open net goals in the final two minutes.




Staff writer Matt Young can be reached at 886-3702 or by e-mail at youngm@caller.com

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