HIDALGO, Texas —- Joel Irving scored twice and the RGV power play connected three times (3-for-6) as the Rio Grande Valley Killer Bees rolled past the Arizona Sundogs 6-2 Thursday morning at State Farm Arena.
The Killer Bees moved back to the .500 mark (25-25-9, 59 pts.) in front of a crowd of 5,500 students as part of the team’s annual Kid’s Day Game with South Texas College and the Valley Town Crier.
Jesse Bennefield, Daymen Rycroft (two assists) and Aaron Lee (1-1-2) also notched two-point efforts.

BOXSCORE
The victory, RGV’s fourth straight, places the Killer Bees just three points behind the Corpus Christi IceRays and the fifth and final playoff slot in the CHL Southern Conference.
RGV took a 1-0 lead out of the first on Irving’s 13th goal of the season. The Killer Bees raced out to a 3-0 lead with a pair of goals 1:59 apart in the second period by Nathan Ansell (4:35) and Stacey Bauman (6:34). Ansell converted on a 2-on-1 with Aaron Lee and Bauman took advantage of a Sundogs turnover to slip the puck past goalie Doug Groenestege (41 saves).
Arizona finally show life 34 seconds after Ansell’s goal as Joey Sides got help from Konrad Reeder to make it a 3-1 game. Lee regained RGV’s three-goal lead after stealing an Arizona clearing attempt and rifling a shot high-glove side past Groenestege at 13:51. The Sundogs, who peppered RGV goalie Andy Franck (36 saves) with 18 shots in the middle frame, wasted little time responding as Rob Lehtinen cut the lead in half 39 seconds later.
It was all Rio in the third with powerplay goals from Irving and Shaun Landolt capping the win. Landolt’s goal was his first since Dec. 18 and the three power play goal game tied a team season-high.
The team kept their perfect record intact when scoring multiple power play goals (12-0-0) and improved to 12-4-2 when a player scores two or more goals. RGV is now also an impressive 19-1-2 when scoring four or more goals.
Franck had 34 saves in net and Lee, Irving and Ansell finished the day with two points apiece.
RGV returns to the ice Friday night at 7:30 p.m. against rival Laredo at State Farm Arena.
Tickets for all games at State Farm Arena are available at all TicketMaster outlets, including the arena box office, and online at www.killerbeehockey.com.

Tags: central hockey league, chl, killer bees hockey