The Sea Wolves came into the weekend having found some success in the preseason with an overtime win against the Bobcats, but having been shut out for two games in a row against the River Dragons last week Mississippi was looking for a confidence boost.
Both sides began the game a bit tentatively, but the Bobcats found an early opportunity on an odd man rush as Aaron Ryback ripped a shot past Samuel Best just 2:41 into the game to give Blue Ridge the 1-0 lead.
The second period began very similar to the first period as just 2:11 in Daniel Martin found the back of the net to give the Bobcats a 2-0 lead. 4:12 later Lucas Rothe added another one for the Bobcats to make it 3-0. After multiple chances on the power play the Sea Wolves had to play shorthanded and gave up another as Devin Sanders scored on the power play at 10:43 to make it 4-0. Mississippi showed signs of life after a goalie change however Curtis Hansen took a stretch pass from Matt Stoia just 19 seconds later to close the gap to 4-1 and end a scoreless drought of 156:04. Blue Ridge was not deterred however scoring 1:52 later to give the Bobcats back a four goal cushion.
The third period was an onslaught of power play opportunities and goals for Blue Ridge as Daniel Klinecky, Dmitri Selyutin, Justin Vernace, and Egor Ramanau all added to the lead to make it 9-1. A late Don Carter Jr goal closed the gap to 9-2 but that was as close as the Sea Wolves could get.
Best stopped 14 of 17 to earn the loss while Trevor Roy stopped 11 of 17 in relief.
The Sea Wolves are back in action tomorrow night back in Blue Ridge looking for revenge. Follow along on Youtube at 7:30pm ET!