The Shreveport Mudbugs won their second Robertson Cup Tuesday night, defeating the top-seeded Aberdeen Wings 4-2 in the NAHL championship game at Fogerty Arena in Blaine, Minn.
Shreveport won its first Robertson Cup in 2018. Aberdeen won the title in 2019. The event wasn’t held in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
After a scoreless first period, the No. 2 seed Mudbugs grabbed a 2-0 lead in the second.
Sean Bunting scored just 54 seconds into the period. Giovanni Procopio scored at the 9:37 mark.
But Liam Fraser cut Shreveport’s lead in half with a power-play goal at 13:05.
The Mudbugs outshot the Wings 22-15 through the first two periods.
Shreveport wasted little time regaining the two-goal advantage as Joe Mack put one in the net with only 46 ticks off the clock in the third on a power play.
But 2:27 later, Fraser made it a one-goal game again with his second goal.
Shreveport had 13 shots in the final period to Aberdeen’s six.
The Mudbugs scored an empty netter with just a few seconds left.
Shreveport rolled through the playoffs with a 9-1 record. The Mudbugs won nine in a row after losing to the Amarillo Bulls in Game 1 of their first-round playoff series.
Procopio led Shreveport in the playoffs with five goals. Braiden Dorfman and Dawson Sciarrino were the team leaders in points with 10 each. Both had four goals and six assists.
Shreveport goalie Cole Hudson was named The Robertson Cup MVP. He was 9-0 in the playoffs, stopping 224 shots with a GAA of 1.54. He made 19 stops Tuesday night, including nine in the first period.
Dorfman and Sciarrino along with defenseman Chris Hedden made the All-Tournament team.
The title was Jason “Soup” Campbell’s first as a head coach. Campbell, who replaced Karlis Zirnis following the 2017-18 season, was a part of two championships as a player. He also got a championship ring as an assistant to Zirnis.
