Rayz score six goals as Killer Bees’ skid hits six games

HIDALGO — The Corpus Christi Rayz aren’t leading the Southern Conference like the Arizona Sundogs. They don’t have an NHL affiliation like the Sundogs, nor do they have two players who will start in the CHL All-Star game next month.

None of that stopped them from scoring at will on the Rio Grande Valley Killer Bees, however. The Rayz (10-14-3) scored three times in each of the first two periods Friday night, beating the Bees 6-3 in front of 4,487 at Dodge Arena.

The Rayz have opened up a three-point lead over the Bees (8-14-4) for second place in the Southeast Division and for the final playoff spot in the Southern Conference.

While the playoffs still are more than three months away, the Bees will have to figure out much sooner why their defense seems to be incapable of stopping anybody from scoring goals.

“We have to look and address the problem. It’s one that’s been here for months, not just the last few weeks,” Bees center Nick Warriner said. “Let’s face the facts here, we’re not a good defensive hockey team. We give up way too many shots against. We’ve been doing that for a while. We were getting lucky at the start of the year, winning games. That’s not a very good method to have success in this league.”

Last weekend, Arizona scored 18 times against the Bees. On Friday, the Rayz, who were without two of their top centers in Justin Quenneville and Nick Lindberg, scored a season-high six goals and managed 39 shots.

That, however, didn’t seem to worry Bees coach Paul Fixter, who saw his team give up its league-most 113th goal.

“We’re not getting any saves … we’re not getting enough of anything,” Fixter said.

When asked about why the Bees are allowing as many goals as they have, Fixter was defiant.

“Go ask them,” Fixter said.

The answers some of Fixter’s players gave probably wouldn’t satisfy him.

“We didn’t buy into our system tonight,” Bees forward Travis Banga said. “I wish I had the answer, but we’re not buying into Fixy’s system right now. He sets it out there, and we’ve got to do what he says. Right now, we’re not buying into it and it’s showing on the ice.”

The Rayz scored the first of three first-period goals at the 7:03 mark when forward Kevin Watters deflected a Joe Blaznek pass past David Lemanowicz. The goal came on a Corpus Christi power play, one of three they’d convert in the first 20 minutes.

The Bees tied the game 2:06 later when defenseman Jeremy Van Hoof’s slap shot beat a screened Jason Tapp. Van Hoof’s goal was his third of the season and gave RGV at least a little bit of momentum, which it used to take the lead when Travis Banga beat Tapp on a 2-on-1 at 11:32 of the first.

The momentum and the lead didn’t last for long.

The Rayz scored five of the game’s next six goals, tying the game at 13:36 of the first when Niko Tuomi, cousin of RGV’s Mike Tuomi, fired a low slap shot past David Lemanowicz to tie the game. Corpus then took the lead three minutes later when defenseman Geno Parrish fired a seemingly harmless wrist shot past Lemanowicz from the blue line, giving the Rayz a lead they never lost.

Instead of rushing Parrish, Bees forward Travis Banga allowed Parrish to take his time shooting, which resulted in a well-placed shot over Lemanowicz’s right shoulder.

After Lemanowicz allowed A.J. Bozoian to score a one-handed goal at 2:01 of the second, Fixter replaced him with Jeff Van Nynatten.

Lemanowicz’s night wasn’t done, however. After making 15 saves on 17 shots in the second period, Van Nynatten was pulled in favor of Lemanowicz.

Fixter didn’t say why he made that move.

“I don’t have to justify or rationalize my decisions to anybody except myself,” Fixter said. “David Lemanowicz did a good job in the third period.”

ICING: The Bees lost their sixth straight game. ... Before Friday’s game, the Bees waived forward Adam Edinger and re-signed forward Jared Silver. Edinger, who as recently as the 2005-2006 season scored 51 goals, managed eight points and a minus-13 rating for RGV. “We gave Adam an opportunity with this organization and it didn’t work out,” Fixter said in a statement. “As with any other veteran player we expect more. We have a certain level of expectations to be met, and no one is exempt from that.” … The Bees also activated defenseman Jason Slusher, who had been on injured reserve since Dec. 8.

Brian Sandalow covers the Rio Grande Valley Killer Bees for The Monitor. You can reach him at (956) 683-4436.