Scorpions rally to win fifth straight "Now we're winning those one-goal games, and that's contageous. It can also go the other way, but when you're winning them it kind of gets contageeous. In the locker room, the guys feel like we're going to make plays and win the game."
Continued from Page 1
A night after moving into a tie for second place in the Southwest Division of the Central Hockey League, the Scorpions rallied twice to beat the Rayz for the second straight night. It was New Mexico's fifth straight win.
The Scorpions' hopes of gaining ground on the other teams in the division had mixed results. First-place Arizona lost at Colorado 3-2 in overtime while Odessa, which came into the night tied with New Mexico for second place, defeated Rocky Mountain 4-1 after the second period.
Those results mean New Mexico and Odessa are tied for second place, only two points behind Arizona. The Scorpions could move into a first-place tie with a home victory over Amarillo on Tuesday.
"It's a tight race. It's fun," said New Mexico right winger Konrad Reeder, who had assists on three of New Mexico's five goals. "In February, when you're playing so many games, it's nice to be in a race. It makes those dog days of February a little less hard to deal with. You're excited to come to the rink."
Rocky Mountain and Colorado, the top two teams in the Northwest Division, helped out the Scorpions by beating Arizona and Odessa on Friday night at home before switching opponents. Meanwhile, New Mexico struggled early in both games against the Rayz before pulling away.
In Friday's 5-3 win, the Scorpions gave up a two-goal lead before exploding in the second half of the second period. A night later the explosion would come in the third period.
"I think its a sign of a good team," said Reeder, whose 64 points leads the team and is fifth in the league. "We're playing with some confidence. We don't get down when other teams score. We get back up.
Unlike Friday, when Corpus Christi never saw the lead, the Rayz jumped ahead early. Niklas Lindberg's goal with 11:33 left was the only score of a chippy first period that five penalties, includng one called on New Mexico's Kevin Harvey at the buzzer. Harvey and Adam Powell of Corpus Christi were involved in two brawls on Friday.
The Scorpions killed off that penalty and one other in the second, and then evened the game 37 seconds later on a goal by Erik Johnson, who scored for the second straight night.
Robertson's goal with 1:19 left in the second period gave New Mexico the lead, and it appeared that might hold up as the winning goal. But Jay Latulippe, who also had an assist on Lindberg's goal, worked his way inside to score with 8:20 left in the game.
The tie lasted just 23 seconds as Macdonald took a pass from Konrad Reeder and one-timed Jason Tapp for the game-winner. Ray Ortiz added a goal 20 seconds later to round out the scoring.
It only took 11 seconds after Ortiz scored for Harvey and Powell to go after it again, with Harvey ending up on top of the Rayz' left winger to end the altercation.
After several incidents on Friday, it took only 38 seconds at the start of the game to lock up again. No penalties were called after most of the players came together behind the Corpus Christi net.
The first penalty of the game was called 15 seconds later when Ross McCain was whisled for interference. There was also one slashing, one two roughing and one interference calls in the period.
The Scorpions had at least three breakaway chances in the first two periods but none resulted in goals.
Net notes:
After an announced attendance of 3,579 Friday on "Sandoval County Night," the announced crowd for "Rio Rancho Night" wsa 4,056, the second-largest of the season behind a sellout day game in December when elementary school children packed the arena on a field trip ...
The Maroon beat the Gold 12-8 in a high school all-star game that served as a preliminary to the Scorpions' game ...
For ticket informatin, go to the team's web site at www.Scorpions.Hockey.com or call 881-PUCK. Complete statistics are available at www.CentralHockeyLeague.com.
STORY WILL BE UPDATED WITH ADDITIONAL QUOTES.
