Cotton Kings Fall to Austin

Lubbock, Texas - The Austin Ice Bats defeated the Lubbock Cotton Kings 4-1 Thursday night at City Bank Coliseum with the help of a pair of power play goals as well as a 30-save performance by goaltender Tony Quesadas. Following a scoreless first period, Austins Aaron Davis scored the first goal of the evening at 4:46 of the second period while on the power play. The lead would be short lived as Lubbocks Bobby Brown sent a wrister into the back of the net 1:20 later for his 249th goal of his career. Austins J.F. Picard made it a 2-1 contest when he lit the lamp at 7:50 of the third period. Ice Bats Julian Smith gave Austin the two-goal lead with a tally at the 10:21 mark of the third period. An empty-netter ended the scoring for the night, as Henry Kuster tapped home the fourth Austin goal with 46 seconds left in regulation. Lubbocks J.F. Perras suffers the loss in net with 32 saves off 35 shots faced. Austins Quesada takes home the win by allowing just one goal on 31 shots. Austin out-shot Lubbock 36-31 for the evening. The Ice Bats were 2-for-4 on the man-advantage, while the Cotton Kings were 0-for-4 on the power play. The Hub City team will head out on the road for a Friday match with the Amarillo Gorillas at 7:00 p.m. Lubbock will return home on Saturday when they face-off with the New Mexico Scorpions at 7:05 p.m.