Texas League: Jackalopes get off to solid start in exhibition play

Odessa Jackalopes forward Richard Paul made a huge impact for his new team Thursday night — both on the scoreboard and the head of Tulsa Oilers player Rob Chappell.

Paul, sitting at the top of the crease off the left post, banged home a rebound of Collin Circelli’s shot with 5:42 left in the second period and that proved to be the game winner as the Jackalopes defeated Tulsa 3-2 at Ector County Coliseum.

The game was the first of two exhibition games between the teams, the second one scheduled for 7 p.m. Saturday at the Coliseum.

Brian Swiniarski and JR Bria also scored for the Jackalopes, with Mike Ramsay, Pascal Bedard and Circelli all finishing with one assist each.

“I thought we got some work in, but it was a sloppy game,” Jackalopes coach Paul Gillis said. “We tried to do some stuff and you could tell the guys who had been before, they could do it and the guys who were new had some trouble.

“We’re trying to pick our team and we’ve got some guys, quite frankly, that I was expecting more from and we haven’t gotten it. We knew that we were going to have some difficult decisions and I was hoping some guys were going to stand out, but they haven’t yet.”

R.J. Linder and Jeff Marshall netted goals for the Oilers, with Marshall’s goal coming on the power play with 3:25 left in the game to pull his squad within one game. But the Jackalopes controlled the play the rest of the way.

Odessa got on the scoreboard early when Swininarski, just 2:39 into the game, finished off a power-play chance from a tough angle.

Bedard started the play at the right point, feeding Ramsay as he heading into the right circle. Ramsay then found Swiniarski on the right goal line and his wrist shot flew just inside the right post and over the shoulder of Tulsa goaltender Kevin Armstrong.

Before the first period was half over, Bria found the net, taking advantage of a screen in front of Armstrong to send the puck along the ice and through several pairs of skates, where it caromed between the goaltender’s skates for the goal.

“I thought we did a good job of controlling things in the first two periods,” Gillis said. “But it got away a little in the third period.”

In the second period, it was Circelli’s effort that created the eventual game winner as he took the puck along the left-wing boards out of his own end and carried it up the ice, slashing through the left circle toward Armstrong, who blocked Circelli’s shot.

The puck rolled free, though, and right to Paul, who quickly flicked it inside the left post.

Then, with seven seconds left in the second period, Chappell decided to mix it up with Paul and found himself on the receiving end of several punishing right hands before falling to the ice.