LAFAYETTE, La. � The Louisiana IceGators used four power play goals to their advantage, beating the Mississippi Sea Wolves 4-2. It was Mississippi�s first loss of the season, as they drop to 2-1-0.
Louisiana improves its record to 2-0-0, by winning its home opener.
Louisiana�s Shawn McNeil opened the score on the power play at 5:27, beating goaltender Mike Buckley, who was making his Sea Wolves debut.
Mississippi responded at 10:33, as captain Steffon Walby made an outstanding pass to a streaking Dave Paradise, who was playing his 200th career game with the Sea Wolves. Paradise deposited his third in as many games, tying the score at 1-1.
The second period didn�t start well for Mississippi, as Buckley had to leave the game after injuring his groin at 1:19. Greg Gardner was forced into action, facing an energized IceGators squad.
Louisiana�s McNeil tallied his second of the night on the power play at 2:05.
Later in the stanza on another IceGators man advantage, veteran John DePourcq was left alone infront of Gardner and potted his first of the year at 5:41, making it 3-1 for Louisiana.
In the third, Mississippi closed the gap. Walby muscled his way into the Louisiana zone and scored his first of the season at 8:55, closing it to 3-2.
But Bruce Richardson�s empty-net goal on the power-play with 18 seconds remaining closed out the scoring.
Buckley made nine saves on 10 shots before exiting due to injury in the second. Gardner turned away 27-of-29 shots to suffer the loss (2-1-0). Frederic Cloutier stopped 19-of-21 to improve his record to 2-0-0.
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