THREE UNANSWERED GOALS PROPEL RIVER DRAGONS OVER ZYDECO 8-4.

Columbus, GA – The Baton Rouge Zydeco ran out of luck on St. Patrick’s Day, after their late comeback was halted by the Columbus River Dragons in the teams’ final meeting of the season.

Columbus came out of the gate swinging in the first period, answering with a goal just five minutes in after Carter Shinkaruk was able to beat Greg Harney to make it 1-0. Justin MacDonald would pick up an assist on the play to extend his scoring streak to 34 games and would pick up the second goal of the period at 14:59. Baton Rouge wouldn’t go away easily, Tyler Larwood used his speed to swing wide and stick one over the shoulder of William Lavalliere to get the Zydeco on the board. Trailing 2-1 in the final minutes of the period, Noah Robinson found himself a breakaway and was hooked on the play. He would be awarded a penalty shot, but would not score as Lavalliere made the stop. After the first period, Columbus found themselves with a  2-1 lead and up in shots 22-9. 

In the second period, Columbus would continue where they left off with MacDonald recording his second of the game just five minutes in. With the Zydeco trailing 3-1, they wouldn’t go away easily, Scott Shorrock sent one in from the blue line at 08:26 to cut the deficit back to one. In the back end of the period, Bradley Richardson tied the game for the Zydeco at 3-3, which came off of a set faceoff beating Lavalliere on the glove side. However, the tie wouldn’t last long as Columbus answered quickly with another response from Austin Daae on the power play, giving them a 4-3 lead. 

The third period is where the Zydeco began the collapse, giving up four goals in the final period. Josh Pietrantonio scored another quick one for Columbus just under 90 seconds into play, making it 5-3. As the teams continued to trade off chances, Robinson would bring the Zydeco within one to make it 5-4 at 12:27. Despite the Zydeco’s pesky play, Columbus would rally to score three unanswered goals en route to their 8-4 victory. This was the last meeting of the season between the two teams. Columbus closed out the series with a 12-1 lead over Baton Rouge, with their only victory against the River Dragons dating back to October 2023 - a 5-4 win at the Raising Cane’s River Center.