Central Hockey League: Jacks' offense explodes in must-win game
Brahmas' series lead cut to 2-1
NORTH RICHLAND HILLS In a game they had to win, Jeff Pierce scored a pair of goals and Sebastien Thinel added four assists to lead the Odessa Jackalopes to a 6-3 victory Wednesday night over the Texas Brahmas in Game 3 of the Southern Conference semifinals at the NYTEX Sports Centre.
Texas now leads the best-of-7 series 2-1 with the road team winning all three games.
Game 4 is scheduled for 7:05 p.m. Friday evening in North Richland Hills, with the Jackalopes hosting Game 5 at 7:05 p.m. Saturday at the Ector County Coliseum.
Garrett Gruenke, Alex Dunn, Mike Ramsay and Dominic Leveille also scored for the Jackalopes, with Collin Circelli adding three assists in the victory.
Odessa goaltender Juha Toivonen stopped 28 of the 31 shots he faced on the night in his first action of the postseason.
“I thought we had good urgency in the game on Saturday, but didn’t find a way to take advantage of our chances,” Jackalopes coach Paul Gillis said. “We found out that against a good goaltender, you have to do a better job of driving the net and you have to work harder and we did that tonight.
“If you look at most of the goals, they were hard-working goals, in front of the net and that’s what we needed. We had to have this game and they got it done and I thought Juha was excellent in net tonight.”
Pierce opened the scoring just 4:50 into the first period with a power-play goal that beat Brahmas’ goaltender Brett Jaeger inside the right post after a battle in front of the net.
Gruenke made it 2-0 less than three minutes later when he collected a loose puck at the left point and fired the puck inside the left post through a screen in front of the Texas net.
Dunn capped the first-period scoring with another blue-collar goal in front, this time with 9:27 left before the first intermission.
Jordan Cameron and Justin Kinnunen’s second-period goals for Texas cut the Odessa lead to one after two periods, but Pierce and Ramsay scored 47 seconds apart early in the third period to regain some breathing room for the Jackalopes. Ramsay’s goal, 6:41 into the third period, earned Jaeger a seat on the Brahmas’ bench the rest of the game.
