Tough Weekend in Mississippi

Friday 10 February

The Mississippi Sea Wolves survived a slugfest on the scoreboard on Friday night, winning 7-6 in overtime in their first game against the Motor City Rockers at the Mississippi Coast Coliseum.
The Rockers earned a 2-1 edge to conclude the first period. After giving up the first goal to Mississippi’s Yaroslav Yevdokimov, Motor City jumped in the lead with Connor Inger and Declan Conway doing the honors.
The second period saw a pair of Sea Wolves newcomers reach milestones. Jackson Bond scored in his team debut with an assist from Sam Turner who was also playing his first game with the team. Yianni Liarakos lit the lamp to extend his point streak to eight games. However, Motor City remained in the lead after the second period at 4-3 with goals under Scott Coash and Brad Reitter.
The Sea Wolves came from behind and pulled off the win behind the thriving YevdokimovLiarakos connection. Despite Coash and Tommy Cardinal getting shots past Mississippi goaltender Joe Sheppard, Liarakos went back-to-back for his hat trick. With overtime needed at a 6-6 score, Yevdokimov used a game-winning goal to let the hats rain down at the Coliseum once again.


Saturday 11 February 

In just his second game with the team, Sam Turner scored a hat trick to lead the Mississippi Sea Wolves to a 5-4 overtime win against the Motor City Rockers on Saturday night at the Mississippi Coast Coliseum. It stands as the Sea Wolves’ third sweep in their past four series.
The Rockers applied pressure early and got on the board on an Elias Thompson drive at 12:50 of the first period. Three minutes later, Turner notched his first goal in a Sea Wolves jersey after receiving a feed from Matt Caranci.
With a 1-1 tie entering the second period, Motor City’s top scorer Scott Coash lived up to his title with back-to-back strikes at 3:28 and 7:44 respectively. The momentum wouldn’t last much longer as Turner and Kyle Russell continued their attack down low and tied the game at three. Russell’s shot from a tight angle represented his first goal with Mississippi.
Conner Inger helped to give the Rockers their third lead of the game at 3:38 of the final period before Lucas Helland scored his first Sea Wolves goal on a drop pass from Justin Barr in the slot. With neither goaltender budging the remainder of regulation, overtime was needed for the second time in as many nights.
Just like he had for his previous two goals, Turner set up shop between the circles in overtime and completed his hat trick with the game-winner assisted by Yianni Liarakos and Jackson Bond.
Mississippi goaltender Joe Sheppard showed his resiliency, stopping 43 of 47 shots faced. Liarakos and Yaroslav Yevdokimov each extended their point streaks to nine games.

Articles courtesy of Nick Roesch