BATON ROUGE, La. � Joe Guenther scored his first career hat trick to lead the Baton Rouge Kingfish over the Mississippi Sea Wolves, 5-4.
Mississippi had its four-game win streak snapped but remains in first place in the Southwest Division with 76 points, one ahead of the second place Louisiana IceGators.
The Kingfish grab two points in the battle for the Coca-Cola Cup. However, Mississippi continues to lead the season series, 18 points to 4. The Sea Wolves will be presented with the inaugural Coca-Cola Cup in the final game of the season series on March 25 at the Mississippi Coast Coliseum.
Baton Rouge (19-35-9) opened the score on the power play at 2:57. Alexandre Burrows got the puck past Sean Matile, for his 12th of the season. Dan Sullivan and Clark Jones collected the helpers.
The Kingfish made it 2-0 at 4:24. Joe Guenther deposited his 14th of the campaign, assisted by Scott Hewson and Dwayne Blais. Baton Rouge kept taking it to the Sea Wolves in the opening stanza.
Guenther netted his second of the game, 15th of the season, making it 3-0 for the Kingfish.
Mississippi (36-21-4) got rolling on the man advantage at 13:53. Newcomer Chris Allen unleashed a heavy right point shot, beating Niklas Sundberg. It was Allen�s first goal in a Sea Wolves uniform and seventh of the year.
The Sea Wolves closed the gap to one at 15:27. Darryl Campbell deposited his 14th of the campaign, making it 3-2 for Baton Rouge.
In the middle stanza, the Kingfish regained their two-goal lead. Blais intercepted a pass and skated in on a breakaway, burying the rebound, for his 11th of the season, making it 4-2 for Baton Rouge through 40 minutes.
In the third, Sea Wolves all-time goals leader Dave Paradise stepped out of the penalty box and sent a wrist shot into the back of the net at 2:03 for his 33rd of the season. It was the 100th career goal in a Sea Wolves uniform for Paradise, making him the first in team history to reach the century mark in goals.
But Guenther went back to work with the man advantage, potting his third goal of the game, which would be the eventual game-winning goal at 5:40.
Sea Wolves� Campbell rounded out the scoring by notching his second of the game from the right circle at 10:20.
Matile turned away 23-of-28 shots, falling to 10-7-0. Sundberg stopped 25-of-29, raising his record to 17-15-2.
Mississippi went 1-for-2 on the power play. Baton Rouge converted on 3-of-4 chances with the man advantage.
Earlier in the day, Sea Wolves forward Mike Scott was named the CCM East Coast Hockey League Rookie of the Month for February. In 14 games in February, the 25-year-old Scott led the Sea Wolves with two game-winning goals and tied for the team and ECHL lead with 22 points as Mississippi went 9-5-0 and moved into first place in the Southwest Division.
The Sea Wolves return home to host South Carolina on Friday at 7:35 p.m. at the Mississippi Coast Coliseum. It�s also �Teddy Bear Toss� night. Throw your stuffed animals on the ice when the Sea Wolves score their first goal. The stuffed animals go towards the local Police and Fire Departments and will be given to children at accident scenes.
Individual game tickets are available at all Ticketmaster locations, the Mississippi Coast Coliseum box office and by calling 228-594-3707.
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