(EL PASO, TX) — Goalie Adam Vay earned his first shutout and the El Paso Rhinos got scoring from seven different players en route to a 7-0 win over the Texas Brahmas.
Vay, who will leave the Rhinos to play for his native Hungary at the World Junior Championships this December, stopped all 12 Texas shots he faced.
El Paso (11-0-0-0, 22 points) takes over first place in the WSHL\’s Midwest Division from the Brahmas (10-9-1-0, 21 points), who fall into a tie with the Dallas Ice Jets (10-3-0-1, 21 points) for second place.
As they did in the series opener Friday, the Rhinos scored an even strength goal, a short-handed goal and a power play goal in the first period, taking a 3-0 lead into the locker room at first intermission.
Trey Hughes started the scoring just 2:17 into the game, taking the puck on a breakaway and rolling it five-hole past Texas goaltender Oliver Eklund for El Paso\’s Western States Hockey League-leading eighth short-handed goal.
Fabien Dube scored at 10:55 to make it 2-0, followed by a power play goal from team co-captain Dakota Beaulieu at 19:02.
David Nelson scored the only goal of the second period on the power play at 7:39.
Nick Plesa scored at 5:53 of the third period, followed 41 seconds later by a laser beam top-shelf strike from Tom Bartel.
Matthew Plesa backhanded a power play shot over Eklund\’s left shoulder at 12:45 of the final frame to wrap up the scoring.
The Rhinos and Brahmas play once more Sunday afternoon at 4:30 p.m. MST. For tickets and information, contact the El Paso Rhinos\’ front office at 915/479.PUCK (7825) or go to www.elpasorhinos.com.=
