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Saturday, March 31, 2001
IceRays tame T-Rex
C.C. cruises past Tupelo in 7-3 win
By Javier Becerra
Caller-Times

George Tuley/Caller-Times

Layne Roland (center) splits Tupelo’s Barry McKinlay (left) and goalie Roby Gropp to power the puck into the right corner of the net during Friday’s game.

It may be the playoffs, but things still remain the same between the Corpus Christi IceRays and Tupelo T-Rex.
   Corpus Christi continued its dominance of Tupelo Friday night with a 7-3 win in Game 1 of a best-of-7 series at Memorial Coliseum. Games 2 and 3 will be played tonight and Sunday in Corpus Christi before the series moves to Tupelo.
   "This is a great start for us," IceRays coach Taylor Hall said. "With the first three games of the series here in Corpus Christi we certainly need to take advantage."
   Seven different players scored for the IceRays, who had a 4-1 lead entering the third period. Kurt Wickenheiser, Tobin Praznik and Dennis Shiryaev each scored in the third to secure the win, which improved the IceRays to 39-28-4.
   Corpus Christi ended Tupelo's 10-game winning streak and handed the T-Rex (46-21-5) just their second loss in 20 games. The victory was the IceRays' fourth over Tupelo this season, and avenged a 7-6 shootout loss to the T-Rex last week.
   "One thing we don't want to do is lay back and watch. Any time you stand around and watch it can get dangerous," Hall said. "I thought at times we were in total control of the game. Other times I thought we lacked a little bit and they made some plays."
   Tupelo forward Jason Firth, who led the league in scoring with 126 points, took just one shot, which got passed Corpus Christi goalie Eddy Skazyk for a score.
   Hall said the IceRays' physical brand of play was key in the win.
   "We're a tough team to play against in a small building like ours," Hall said. "We play physical most of time, and every time they get the puck, we've got a guy on them. They know they're going to get hit, and it's tough for skilled teams to play against that."
   The physical play began almost immediately in the opening period, as both teams traded blows along the boards and in front of the net.
   At the 3:17 mark of period, Tupelo's Joe Van Volsen was penalized two minutes for hooking. The IceRays worked their way through the Tupelo defense, but the T-Rex cleared the puck out of their zone before Corpus Christ was able to take a shot.
   A line change midway through the penalty disrupted Corpus Christi's offensive attack. The IceRays eventually penetrated deep into the Tupelo zone as the penalty time ran out.
   A tripping penalty on Kurt Wickenheiser at 7:17 gave Tupelo a man advantage, but the IceRays cleared the puck each time the T-Rex brought the puck into the Corpus Christi zone.
   Corpus Christi took a 1-0 lead at 12:21 on a goal by Alex Kholomeyev, making his first appearance since missing six games with an undisclosed injury.
   The same line of Kholomeyev, Wickenheiser and Layne Roland gave the IceRays a 2-0 lead four minutes later. After Kholomeyev dumped the puck behind the Tupelo net, Wickenheiser chased it down and made a pass to Roland, who flipped it over Tupelo goalie Roby Gropp for the easy score.
   "I knew when (the puck) came of the boards it kind of got stuck. Then I saw Wickenheiser get the puck, so I went to the net and he made a beautiful pass," said Roland, who scored 23 goals in the regular season. "I didn't think it went in at first, but then I saw their goalie turn around and I knew I'd scored."
   Tupelo cut into Corpus Christi's lead at the 1:45 mark of the second period when Ryan Ritnoul made it a 2-1 game.
   Following the goal, the pace slowed until Corpus Christi's Bob Quinnell was called for high sticking at 6:32. Again, the IceRays were able to defend against the power play.
   With 27 seconds left on Quinnell's penalty, Corpus Christi defenseman Jamie Hearn scored unassisted to put the IceRays back up by two goals.
   Tupelo coach George Dupont replaced Gropp with Stu Dunn, who didn't fare much better.
   Forty-five seconds after Hearn's goal, Brad Wingfield made it a three-goal lead, 4-1, scoring between Dunn's legs on a hard slap shot from the right point.
   ICERAYS 7, T-REX 3
   Tupelo 0 1 2--3
   Corpus Christi 2 2 3--7
   First period -- 1, CC, Kholomeyev 1 (Roland) 12:21; 2, CC, Roland 1 (Wickenheiser, Kholomeyev) 16:03. Penalties-J. Van Volsen, Tupelo (hooking) 3:17; Wickenheiser, CC (tripping) 7:17; Quinnell, CC (roughing) 16:57.
   Second period -- 3, Tupelo, Ritnoul 1 (Firth, Blackned) 1:45; 4, CC, Hearn 1 (unassisted) 8:05; 5, CC, Wingfield 1 (Bumstead, Evans) 8:50. Penalties-Quinnell, CC (high sticking) 6:32; Paluseo, CC (roughing) 10:32; Stacey, Tupelo (roughing) 10:32; Hearn, CC (tripping) 17:36; Stewart, Tupelo (high sticking) 17:52; Kholomeyev, CC (unsportsmanlike conduct) 20:00; Dupont, Tupelo (bench minor) 20:00.
   Third period -- 6, CC, Wickenheiser 1 (Hearn, Roland) 1:25; 7, Tupelo, Firth 1 (Harper) 1:49; 8, Tupelo, Szabo 1 (Beausoleil, Stacey) 5:25; 9, CC, Praznik 1 (Paluseo, Frappier) 14:49; 10, CC, Shiryaev 1 (Praznik, Paluseo) 19:22. Penalties-Powers, Tupelo (tripping) :59; McArthur, CC (tripping) 5:11; Stewart, Tupelo (high sticking, unsportsmanlike conduct) 6:20; M. Van Horlick, CC (unsportsmanlike conduct) 6:20; Butler, Tupelo (roughing) 14:11; Dumoulin, CC (roughing) 14:11.
   Shots on goal-Tupelo 5-9-6--20; Corpus Christi 14-13-12--39. Power-play opportunities-Tupelo 1 of 5; Corpus Christi 1 of 4. Goalies-Tupelo, Gropp 12-2-0 (17 shots-14 saves), Dunn 0-9-9 (22-18); Corpus Christi, Skazyk 5-8-4 (20-17). Referee-Matt Bialota. Linesmen-Randy Sappo, Eric Von Feldt. A-N/A.

Staff writer Javier Becerra can be reached at 886-3734 or by e-mail at becerraj@caller.com

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