GAME 2 PREVIEW: BATON ROUGE KINGFISH AT MONROE MOCCASINS

KINGFISH EYE OPENING WEEKEND SWEEP

After a decisive, 6-2, victory on opening night at home, the Baton Rouge Kingfish hit the road for a rematch with the Monroe Moccasins tonight at Monroe Civic Center. 

It's the second of 13 head-to-head regular season contests between the two squads. 

After tonight, the Kingfish and Moccasins next meet in another home-and-home series Nov. 20  and 21. 

BROADCAST COVERAGE

Kingfish Pregame at 6:50 p.m.

Streaming: Free-to-watch video on YouTube at www.youtube.com/@BatonRougeKingfish 

LAST TIME OUT 

In their first game in franchise history, the Kingfish racked up six goals to race past the Moccasins, 6-2, last night at Raising Cane's River Center.

After the Moccasins opened the scoring midway through the first, Jake Cox poked in a pass from Joseph Drapluk to level the score at 16:16. Despite a 20-5 shots advantage for Baton Rouge, the game was tied, 1-1, after 20 minutes.

In the second period, the Kingfish, once again, controlled the play, volleying 21 more shots. Matt Stoia, at 16:15, was able to find the back of the net, with a wrist shot to the blocker side of the Monroe goaltender. Baton Rouge led, 2-1, after forty minutes and led in shots on goal, 41-11.

The Kingfish began the third period on a five-minute powerplay and capitalized, scoring three man-up goals in a 3:24 span to put the game out of reach. Jason Brancheau slotted home a feed from Tyler Williams, Drapluk deflected home a Stoia point shot and Cox nabbed his second of the night to complete the scoring spree. 

After Monroe cut the Baton Rouge lead to three, Dmitry Kuznetsov tucked away an empty-netter with 43 seconds remaining to seal the 6-2 win. 

Jake Cox's three-point (2g, 1a) performance earned first-star honors. Goaltender Ed Coffey stopped 17 of the 19 shots he faced to earn his first win of the season.

COX IS COOKIN'

Jake Cox notched three points (2g, 1a) in last night's home win, 6-2, against Monroe .

It marked Cox's first three-point outing since April 10, 2025 -- a hat-trick against the Moccasins.. 

The Columbus, GA, native led the Zydeco with 15 goals last season and rejoins the Kingfish after finishing the 2025-26 campaign in Pee Dee.

STOIA SIZZLES IN KINGFISH DEBUT

Matt Stoia earned second-star honors with a two-point (1g, 1a) outing in last night's victory, 6-2, against Monroe. 

The Marysville, MI, native was signed by Baton Rouge on Thursday after skating in 25 games last season with Columbus and Biloxi.

It's his first multi-point game since Feb. 21, a two-point effort against Blue Ridge.

FIRST GAME, FIRST WIN

Last night's game marked both the first win in Kingfish history and the first win of head coach Jimmy Soper's professional coaching career.

Soper, 31, steps behind the Baton Rouge bench after a nine-year pro career in the ECHL, SPHL and FHL.

He served as captain of the SPHL's Knoxville Ice Bears for the final two years of his playing career, leading the organization to back-to-back playoff berths and a trip to the President's Cup Finals in 2025. 

SCOUTING THE MOCCASINS

Monroe is 2-0-0 on home ice, posting wins of 6-3 and 5-1 last weekend against Mid-South.

Forwards Jared Christy and Carlos Fornaris have been two of the FPHL's best offensive players so far.

Christy leads the league in points (8) and assists (6). Fornaris ranks second in the FPHL with seven points and five helpers.