El Paso Rhinos 6 @ Austin Ice Bats 4 – Playoffs are ON and your El Paso Rhinos are in the running! We start of this week by heading over to Austin to face off against the Ice Bats on their home turf! First period is all Rhinos as Carter Tuplin gives us the first goal of the night with just over 13 minutes to go in the first. Austin McPherson gives us an insurance goal with less than three minutes to go, and with three seconds left on the clock Kenneth Cadwallader makes it 3-0 over the Ice Bats.
After first intermission the Rhinos & Ice Bats take back to the ice, but the Ice Bats still falter to Rhino offense. Huero Rivera starts us off, putting us up 4-0, and with yet another shorthanded goal from Mikhail Levaniuk we find ourselves up 5-0 at the end of the second.
Ice Bats take to second intermission and change up their strategy and return to the ice with new found determination. The Ice Bats’ Mason Manderfield finds himself in a position to put them on the board two minutes in to the third period and again deep in the period for two goals. The score is now 5-2 with Rhinos still out in front, and Carter Tuplin off a powerplay makes it 6-2. Shortly after the Ice Bats would take two more goals from Jaxon McGOvern and Jake Bamback but it’s not enough to take back the lead and Rhinos would win Game 1 with a 6-4 lead.
El Paso Rhinos 2 @ Austin Ice Bats 6 – Back on the ice for the anticipated second match of the weekend, Ice Bats & Rhinos are once again ready to fight it out. Ice Bats are out first to score tonight with Jake Bamback, putting them up 1-0 with 15:47 left in the period. Luckily for the Rhinos though the Ice Bats find themselves on the bad end of a penalty, ceding a power play opportunity. Kenneth Cadwallader capitalizes on the chance to tie up the game for the Rhinos at 1-1. We’d head into second intermission after one more goal from Austin, where they steal back the lead as Arys Perardi scores.
Second period is all Austin with three goals spread out over the next twenty minutes. Georgii Tokarskii is first to score off a powerplay goal at the 14:22 mark, followed a few minutes later by Liam Cardona. Ice Bats lead increases to 4-1 before Ethan Slater makes it 5 as the clock ticks down and by the end of the second the Rhinos still trail behind.
Cadwallader does manage to get himself a second goal off a powerplay to cut Austin’s lead by one point, but Ice Bats are still up 5-2, and with one last goal from Perardi the Ice Bats secure Game #2 with a 6-2 lead.
El Paso Rhinos 0 @ Austin Ice Bats 5 – It’s all down to game #3 as both teams make one final stand to advance to the next round of playoffs. Jaxon Mcgovern starts off the night with Austin scoring the only goal of the first period with a little over two minutes to go. While there was fighting for control of the puck, the Ice Bats maintained a firm grip over it and the ice.
After intermission the Rhinos adjust their strategy to hopefully break through the Ice Bats’ line. Unfortunately for them we have another period of fierce fighting, but in a similar fashion we only see a single goal from the Ice Bats’ Arys Perardi. With Austin now up 2-0, we head in to one final intermission before the final 20 minutes begin.
Rhinos push even harder early in the third, but end up catching a penalty and hand over the man advantage to Austin through a powerplay where Matthieu Leblanc makes it 3-0. Georgii Tokarskii follows a few minutes later for their fourth unopposed goal of the night and things are looking dire for El Paso. With one final goal from Mason Manderfield, the Ice Bats take a whopping 5-0 lead over the Rhinos to close out the game with a complete shutout.
Rhinos are knocked out of playoffs, but it was a well-fought season. We thank all our fans, supporters, and billet family hosts for a wonderful season and we hope to see you next year!
