Bees Sting IceRays in Game One

The Rio Grande Valley Killer Bees are arguably the hottest team in the CHL winning four straight games heading into Game One of their best-of-three Opening Round series with the their Southeast Division rivals, the Corpus Christi IceRays and on Monday night it showed.  The Bees didn’t take long to assume control of the game scoring four times in the first period en route to a 5-1 win at the Dodge Arena.

RGV/CRP Box Score

The win was the first post-season victory for the Bees since March 30, 2007 when they won Game One of their first round series with Laredo before dropping the next four games.

Killer Bees vs. IceRays
Game 1 - CGP 1 @ RGV 5
Game 2 (3/25/09) - RGV @ CRP, 7:05 PM (CST)
Game 3 (3/26/09) - CRP @ RGV, 7:35 PM (CST)

It took 52 seconds for RGV to get the ball rolling with Aaron Lee scoring the first goal of the 2009 post-season.  Following that up was Topher Scott, Grant Goeckner-Zoeller and Jesse Bennefield all followed with goals of their own building the 4-0 lead after 20 minutes.  The Bees outshot the Rays 15-9 in the opening period.

In the second period, Jereme Tendler got the IceRays on the board with a shorthanded goal at the 12:05 mark of the period and his team began building some momentum outshooting the Bees 8-7 in the period, but with less than a minute remaining in the second frame, defenseman Nicolas Dumoulin pushed the lead back to a four-goal margin with his first goal of the night.  During the regular season, the CHL All-Rookie team member was a thorn in the side of the IceRays scoring 17 points (5-12=17) leading the way for both teams in the 13 regular season meetings.

The game was physical indeed setting the tone for Game Two on Wednesday night in Corpus Christi as the two clubs combined for 110 penalty minutes.

Wylie Rogers made 30 saves earning the win, while Kris Tebbs also stopped 30 shots taking the loss.