The Texas RoadRunners took back sole possession of first place in the South division of the NA3HL this past weekend taking five of a possible six points over the three games.
Louisiana 4 @ TX RoadRunners 3 (SO): The Louisiana Drillers took a shootout win, 4-3, over the Texas RoadRunners. Late in the first period, Jack Lambert (16:00) netted the only goal of the first as the Drillers got ahead 1-0 to close out the period. In the second it was all Texas as Matvey Ivanov (6:59/10:30) netted two goals and Jack Herron (9:11) added one in between for a 3-1 RoadRunners lead. In the third frame, the Drillers battled back to even the game 3-3 with Austin Manns (11:09) and Rory Neish (13:58). No goals were scored in the OT period, as both Drillers of Cheeno Gryska and Colton Sebastian scored in the shootout for the 4-3 win. Netminder John Moriarty stopped 20 of 23 shots to earn the win.
Louisiana 2 @ TX RoadRunners 5: The Texas RoadRunners bounced back after a loss the night before to defeat the Louisiana Drillers in a 5-2 game. The game did not see its first goal until Jack Klunk (13:07) scored for the RoadRunners in the second period. The Drillers evened the game at 1-1 with Colton Sebastian (17:17) to end the second. In the third, Eitan Geralnik (1:58) took back the lead for the RoadRunners netting his 10th of the year. Jack Lambert (3:20) evened the game once again for the Drillers. Soon after, the RoadRunners took full control of the game adding 3 unanswered goals as TJ Lipsky (9:01/19:20) and Jack Klunk (11:25) scored to end the game. Goaltender Hunter Hein picked up the win stopping 26 of 28 shots.
Louisiana 3 @ TX RoadRunners 4 – The RoadRunners moved into sole possession of 1st place in the South Division thanks to a 4-3 win over the Drillers, taking two of three games in the weekend series. After Cheeno Gryska gave the Drillers a 1-0 lead, the RoadRunners responded with three straight goals from Tyler Love, Eitan Geralnik, and Kyle Portlock to take a 3-1 lead. The Drillers fought back to tie the game in the 3rd period with back-to-back goals from Frank Steinway. However, the RoadRunners netted the game-winner with just :40 seconds remaining off the stick of Jack Herron. Nash Wilson made 34 saves in the win, while John Moriarty made 22 saves in the loss.
“I am happy the guys stuck to the game plan, we made a couple of mistakes and Louisiana capitalized but we played a solid weekend and grabbed the first place spot back and with four games in hand it feels pretty good right now going into a quick Thanksgiving break.” states Runners Coach Mike Beavis
The Runners should be getting back two of their regular defensemen over the next couple weeks and would love to be 100% for the upcoming Blaine Showcase where the team will face the biggest testing of the season to date. If the Runners retain first place which looks to be the case they will face off against three top teams from other divisions at the showcase. “We are looking forward to facing the top teams in the league to see where we are near the mid point of the season and to see what work needs to be done in the second half to reach our long term goals.” added Beavis
The Runners will enjoy the Holiday weekend off before hitting the Ice next week to prepare for a three game set up in Euless, TX where they will face off VS the Mid Cities Jr Stars in a three game road set December 2nd 3rd and 4th. Catch all the action live from Euless @ Hockeytv.com