Charlie Burchfield scored twice and Ethan Phillips made 35 saves as the Shreveport Mudbugs defeated Corpus Christi, 4-1, on George’s Pond to complete a sweep of an NAHL South Division play-in series.

Shreveport Mudbugs defeated Corpus Christi Ice Rays 4-1 to take the play-in series 2-0. They advance to the South Division semifinals.

The Mudbugs exacted some revenge on the IceRays, who swept Shreveport out of the postseason last year. 

Saturday’s victory came on the heels of Friday’s dominant 7-2 effort in Game 1. Corpus had a finish to the 2026 season to forget. In a wild move, the fourth-seeded IceRays fired their first-year head coach Kevin St. Jacques less than two weeks ago.  

Sunday, the fifth-seeded Mudbugs will learn the identity of their next playoff opponent. 

The other South Division play-in series (Oklahoma at El Paso) is tied at 1. If El Paso wins Sunday, the Mudbugs will face top-seeded Lone Star in a best-of-5 South semifinal series. If Oklahoma wins Sunday, Shreveport will face No. 2 New Mexico.

No matter, the Mudbugs will open on the road for the first two games.

Game 3 of the series will take place at The George on April 24. Game 4, if necessary, will be April 25.

After a scoreless first period Saturday, Joseph Samango gave the Mudbugs a 1-0 lead late in the second period with a power-play goal. Johnathan Berndt made the lead 2-0 with another power-play tally 4:46 into the final period.

Burchfield, who made his debut for Shreveport Feb 7, scored the last two goals.Â