BOSSIER CITY, LA – The Odessa Jackalopes scored four powerplay goals on nine opportunities on their way to a 4-1 victory over the Bossier-Shreveport Mudbugs Friday night at the CenturyTel Center. Odessa scored twice in each of the last two periods and surrendered only Joe Zappala’s third period tally on their way to a CHL-best seventh win of the season.

The loss drops Bossier-Shreveport to 3-4-0 on the year and 0-4 at home for just the second time in franchise history. The Mudbugs finished 0 for 4 on the powerplay themselves and were outshot 31-22 in the contest.

The ‘Bugs killed off two Odessa powerplays in the opening frame and had a pair of great scoring chances. First Joel Martin came all the way across his crease to stop Joe Blaznek’s point-blank chance and then Jeff Kyrzakos clanged a shot off the crossbar a few minutes later. The game was scoreless after the first period with Odessa leading the shot count 9-6.

The Jackalopes opened the scoring with a 4-on-3 powerplay goal by Phillipe Plante early in the second period that made it 1-0. Dominic Leveille’s 5-on-3 tally later in the stanza made it a 2-0 game for Odessa after 40 minutes.

The Jacks extended the lead to 3-0 when Kenny Bernard buried another powerplay goal in the opening minutes of the third period. Bossier-Shreveport then finally got on the board when Dave Pszenyczny set up Zappala in the slot, where the first-year Mudbug netted his team-leading fourth goal of the season to make it 3-1 at the 5:02 mark. The comeback effort was halted though when Tyler Liebel was called for four minutes in penalties late in the game, leading to Mike Ramsay’s fourth and final powerplay goal that capped the Jackalopes’ victory.

John DeCaro stopped 27 shots but saw his three-game winning streak snapped despite not allowing an even-strength goal in the contest. Joel Martin made 21 saves in his third win of the year.

The two teams will be right back at it tomorrow night at 7:05 pm for the second game of this weekend’s back-to-back set at the CenturyTel Center.