Ice Bats Stung By Rio Grande, 5-2

(Austin, TX) – Trailing Amarillo by one point for the final playoff spot in the Southern Conference, the Ice Bats played what was the first of their remaining eight games against the Rio Grande Valley Killer Bees Friday night at Chaparral Ice Arena.  Rio Grande came in ready to play and earned their third road win of the season with a 4-1 victory over the Bats.

Each team traded a goal in the first period with Rio Grande scoring first from Mike Tuomi.  Nick Warriner and Jason Slusher had the assists.  Then for the Ice Bats, John Ronan tied the game up on a power play with his 13th goal of the year.  Jason Tessier was the lone assist man on Ronan’s goal.  It was a 1-1 tie at the end of the first period.

Rio Grande Valley took control in the second period with two goals.  Lance Herauf scored on a wrist shot from the top of the right circle to make it a 2-1 Rio Grande Valley lead.  Then with less than a minute remaining in the second, Dennis Maxwell extended the Killer Bees’ lead to 3-1 with a goal on a helper from Jason Weitzel. 

Rio Grande added another goal early in the third period on a goal from Danny Lapointe to go up 4-1.  Austin would try to make a game out of it when Mike Bartlett scored his 16th goal of the season on an assist from Brendan Cook to make the score 4-2, but Travis Banga added an empty net goal to make the final score 5-2, Killer Bees.