CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas – Malte Hasselgren scored a natural hat trick, recording the first three goals of the game, and Nick Comfort earned his first three-point night in the NAHL as the Oklahoma Warriors beat the Corpus Christi IceRays 5-1 at the American Bank Center Saturday.
Nearly five minutes into the opening frame, Comfort sailed a pass from his defensive zone goal line up to Hasselgren at center ice and Hasselgren scored his first of the game from the top of right the circle at 4:54. Oklahoma went to work in the offensive zone moments later and added to its lead. Coming from a board battle at the half-wall, Comfort dropped a pass to Kaden Nelson who was covering his point. Nelson sent the puck down to Hasselgren in the slot, and the native of Gavle, Sweden, shoveled a backhand shot into the back of the net at 7:45. The Warriors went to the first intermission up 2-0 on the scoreboard and 10-8 in the shot column.
Scoring would continue past the halfway point of regulation and Hasselgren completed his hat trick at 12:06. William Ahlrik and Garrett Horsager set up Hasselgren for a zone entry on the far-side, and Hasselgren rifled home his third into the top corner to make it 3-0. Less than two minutes later, Brendan Williams helped a puck from the far-side circle to the slot to Hunter Jones. Jones then swiped it to Comfort in tight, who potted his first of the season into a mostly empty net. The Warriors scored their final goal of the game with 3:11 left in the second when Blaise Miller skated through neutral, stopped up at the near-side faceoff dot, and wristed in the fifth goal of the game past the blocker of Corpus Christi’s goaltender.
The IceRays scored just over 10 and a half minutes into the third off an unfortunate bounce for the Warriors, but Oklahoma would come away with the 5-1 win.
Oklahoma is back in action for its home opener October 28th at 7:15 p.m. against the Shreveport Mudbugs at Blazers Ice Centre in Oklahoma City. Tickets for all Warriors home games can be purchased at https://www.oklahomawarriors.com/individual-game-tickets.