CALLER-TIMES INTERACTIVE: NEWS

Saturday, Oct. 17, 1998

'Rays pay Austin back for first loss

CC a winner in first road contest, 3-1

By MARK BUTTON
Staff Writer

   A rivalry is born.
   After the memory of Austin stealing the show and defeating the Corpus Christi IceRays on the team's opening night Tuesday sunk in, the IceRays looked to Friday night's rematch for revenge.
   Mission accomplished, as Corpus Christi's Craig Coxe dished out two assists and the IceRays defeated the Ice Bats, 3-1, in Austin's home opener at the Travis County Expo Center. The two Western Professional Hockey League central division teams will play on six more occasions after meeting in two of Corpus Christi's first four games.
   "As soon as I found out this was their home opener, I was pumped," Corpus Christi defenseman Phil Valk said. "We had this big post-party planned on Tuesday, and losing was just not an option. Then those (explative) came in and stole two points from us.
   "So to come in here and steal two points from them was extra, extra special."
   The first two periods of the game Friday were extra, extra physical. The two teams total 82 penalty minutes through 40 minutes. In fighting penalty minutes alone, 30 minutes were served.
   "I think anytime you have two teams in the same divisions, the same state and this close to each other, you're going to have a rivalry," Coxe said.` `And this is no different."
   Picking up where they left off Thursday when the IceRays scored five goals in the third period in a 8-2 victory against Alexandria, Corpus Christi got on the board early Friday.
   Defenseman Bob Quinell lit the lamp on a beautiful tick-tack-toe, power-play goal 17:42 into the first period. Vadim Sharapov dished a pass from the left corner to Craig Coxe, who was set just to the left of Austin goalie Brian Elder. Coxe then darted a no-look, backhand pass to a wide open, charging Quinell.
   Elder, watching Coxe, never saw the Quinell wrist shot.
   Midway through the second period, Corpus Christi increased its lead to 2-0 on a Bob Quinell wrist shot from the left wing. Jody Praznik assisted on the power-play goal.
   Three minutes later, Austin scored its first goal. Shawn Legault shot a wrister past Caprice on feeds from Ice Bats Craig Johnson and Andy Ross. With 9:33 to play in the second, Corpus Christi led Austin, 2-1.
   Though the rough play slowed down in the third period, the Ice Bats made no effort to shy away from the new rivalry with Corpus Christi.
   "They have a big, strong team and we have a youthful, energetic team," said Ice Bat Ryan Anderson, who has played with Austin since the team's start in 1996. "It makes for some good collisions and battles. It's definitely going to be a good battle again."
   Team captain Jody Praznik said the IceRays dictated the less physical play in the third penalty, where only two infractions were called compared to 13 in the second period.
   "We could have kept punishing them, kept initiating things," Praznik said, "but our goal was to come in and get two points. They had a lot of power-play chances as it was."
   Friday's contest was plagued with delays because of recurring fog on the ice surface at the Expo Center, which does not have air conditioning. Several times throughout the game, the referee stopped play and asked both benches to clear and skate in circles on either end of the ice to circulate the air and temporarily eliminate the fog.
   "In my 15 years of professional hockey, I've never seen anything like it," said Corpus Christi goalie Frank Caprice, who stopped 23 of 24 Austin shots. "It was like putting our equipment on and going out to play in a sauna. They should be fined for not having adequate conditions to play under."
   The rivalry was not limited to players alone: One Ice Bats fan threw a full cup of beer on the IceRays bench as time expired.
   While there's nothing the Corpus Christi players could do about that, some IceRays are willing to take it out on the Ice Bats during the next six meeting between the two.
   "We have to play them again soon," Valk said. "So there's nowhere to hide. Sooner or later, they're going to get what's coming to them."
   

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