The Laredo Bucks of the Central Hockey League beat the Colorado Eagles 4-2 Wednesday night at the Budweiser Events Center. The Bucks won their second straight road game as they improve to 17-12-7 (41 points). Laredo is now two points behind Texas for third place in the Southern Conference and increased their lead over Rio Grande Valley to three points for fourth place

Darryl Smith scored two goals and Kevin Desfosses set aside 42 of 44 shots as the Bucks picked up just their second win all time on the Eagles home ice (2-8). Desfosses improves to 2-1 in net for the Bucks.

The Bucks have won back to back road games for the first time since November 6th-7th when they won two straight in Arizona.

The Bucks jumped out in front of the Eagles early on as they took a 3-0 lead after 20 minutes of play.

Smith put the Bucks up 1-0 just 2:53 into the game when he jammed in a rebound right in front of the Eagles net. The Bucks are 13-4-2 when scoring first this season.

Laredo would make it 2-0 with 5:11 left in the first period when Smith hammered home a slap shot on the power-play from the top of the slot. The strike was Smith’s second of the night and his team-leading 18th of the campaign.

The Bucks would increase their lead to 3-0 with just 1:15 left in the first period when Brent Cullaton scored on a rebound from the top of the left circle.

Cullaton came out of retirement to rejoin the Bucks for the three-game road trip to Colorado.

The Bucks were outshot in the first period 14-11.

Neither team was able to score in the second period giving Laredo a 3-0 lead after 40 minutes.

The Bucks were outshot once again in the second period this time by a 11-9 count. Laredo improves to 14-0-3 when leading after two periods this season.

Colorado (23-8-3) would score twice late in the third period to cut the Laredo lead to 3-2 with 2:27 left in the game.

Ryan McLoud (14:23) and Riley Nelson (17:33) scored for the Eagles to cut the Bucks lead to one.

Igor Agarunov sealed the game when he scored with 1:28 left in the third to put the Bucks up 4-2. It was Agarunov’s second goal of the season and his first since the home opener on October 24th.

Mike Mole suffered the loss for Colorado as he stopped 25 of 29 shots he faced.

Laredo was outshot in the game 44-29.