(EL PASO, TX) — Kendal Craig and Marek Langhammer scored twice and the El Paso Rhinos swept the Dallas Snipers, winning 10-2 Sundayafternoon in front of a sold-out crowd of 1,837 at the Events Center.
As he did in Saturday’s 8-2 win, Craig started the scoring at 3:59 of the first period, followed by defenseman Brennan Johnsson who ripped in a shot from the blue line for a power play goal just 59 seconds later.
Justin Becton scored a power play goal for the Snipers at 8:04 of the first to bring the visitors back within a goal, but Craig scored a short-handed goal on a partial deflection with just 20 seconds left in the first period to give El Paso a 3-1 lead going into the first intermission.
The second frame was all El Paso, as Langhammer scored his first on the power play at 3:56. Returning Rhino Jeramy Rezaeepour scored at5:42, followed by team-leading goal-scorer Jiri Pestuka 41 seconds later.
Pestuka earned his 38th goal and is currently the fifth among the Western States Hockey League’s top goal scorers.
Dallas’ Dusan Olsa scored another hard-work power play goal off of a short rebound at 11:04, but again the hosts answered as recent acquisition Mitch Cobby scored at 14:59 to give the Rhinos a 7-2 lead after 40 minutes.
Sebastian Borg (9:12), Langhammer (11:31) and Jonah Pearson (16:23) got El Paso to double digits with goals in the third period.
El Paso improves to 39-4-0-0, and the Rhinos 78 points assures them of one of the top seeds in the upcoming Thorne Cup Playoffs, as well as a first-round bye.
El Paso will finish out the regular season next weekend against the Oklahoma City Blazers, the only team to beat the Rhinos in the Sun City and the only team to beat El Paso twice this season, including once last weekend in OKC.
The games will be broadcast on 600 ESPN El Paso and via 600ESPNElPaso.com. All Rhinos home games can be seen via a link atwww.elpasorhinos.com.
For tickets and information, contact the Rhinos’ front office at 915/479.PUCK (7825) or go to team website.
