Central Hockey League: Pierce's hat trick isn't enough to save Jackalopes

ALLEN Not even Jeff Pierce, as hot as he has been for the Odessa Jackalopes, could bring his team back Friday night.

For the second consecutive game, the Jackalopes allowed the Allen Americans to build a huge lead through the first 25 minutes of play. Do it again tonight and their season is over.

Jarret Lukin scored a pair of goals, with Nino Musitelli, Colton Yellow Horn, Justin Bowers and Ryan Fairbarn each finishing with one goal to lead Allen to a 6-4 victory in Game 4 of the Southern Conference Finals at the Allen Event Center.

Tyler Wooddisse finished with three assists for Allen.

The Americans, who finished second behind the Jackalopes in the regular season, lead the best-of-7 series 3-1 and can close out Odessa’s season at 7:30 p.m. tonight with a Game 5 victory. A victory by the Jackalopes would bring the series back to the Permian Basin at 7:05 p.m. Monday at the Ector County Coliseum for Game 6.

Pierce scored a hat trick for the Jackalopes, with Kory Karlander adding a short-handed penalty shot goal for the other Odessa tally.

Until Karlander scored with 2:46 remaining in the second period, Pierce had scored six consecutive goals for the Jackalopes — the overtime winner in Game 2, both goals in a 5-2 loss on Wednesday and the trio on Friday. Pierce now has a playoff-leading 10 goals and is tied with Bowers with 17 points in the postseason.

Musitelli started the onslaught with an unassisted goal just 2:33 into the game, taking a loose puck at the top of the left circle, skating deeper into the Odessa zone and then snapping a wrist shot past a Jackalopes’ defender and between the pads of Odessa goaltender Juha Toivonen.

Lukin and Yellow Horn then found the net late in the first period before Pierce put the Jackalopes on the scoreboard with his first of the night with just 90 seconds to go before the first intermission.

Allen, however, came out of the locker room for the second period with more jump in its step and Bowers and Lukin gave the American’s a four-goal lead just 8:32 into the period. That’s when Pierce potted his second and third goals of the night and then Karlander, after getting taken to the ice from behind on a shorthanded attempt on the penalty kill, beat Allen goaltender Chris Whitley to pull Odessa within one.

Whitley, who stopped 39 of the 43 shots he faced, seemed to injure himself on the play, but he was able to recover and stayed in the contest.