RIVER DRAGONS WIN HOME OPENER 5-3

COLUMBUS, GA - Justin MacDonald scored a goal and added two assists to extend his scoring streak to seven games and help the Columbus River Dragons to a 5-3 win in its home opener against the Mississippi Sea Wolves on Friday night.

Columbus scored twice in the first period, the first coming from Alexander Jmaeff at 7:01 followed by Josh Pietrantonio scoring off a beautiful back-door feed from Nolan Slachetka to make it 2-0 at 8:39.

In the second period, MacDonald had a power play goal called back at 7:36 because it was ruled he knocked the puck in with his hand. But later on that same power play, Jay Croop netted his first goal of the season to make it 3-0 at 8:33.

Mississippi’s offense woke up after that, scoring a pair of goals to close the gap to 3-2 early in the third period and set the stage for a dramatic finish.

Jmaeff netted his second goal of the night at 12:53 to make it 4-2, but the Sea Wolves would once again draw within a goal with a power play marker from Hugo Koch at 16:39.

With under two minutes remaining and goaltender Joe Sheppard heading to the bench for the extra attacker, the Sea Wolves appeared to score the game-tying goal in a scramble in front of River Dragons goalie Breandan Colgan (23 saves). But the goal was disallowed for a kicking motion, and MacDonald would score into an empty net one minute later to secure the win.

The same two teams go right back at it tomorrow night at the Mississippi Coast Coliseum at 7:05 pm ET, with the AirForce Heating and Air Pregame Show starting at 6:30 pm on 106.9 Really Rocks and the River Dragons YouTube Channel @ColumbusRiverDragons. 

– IT’S GO TIME! –