Central Hockey League: Brahmas bully Jacks
After six months of working hard to earn home ice throughout the playoffs, the Odessa Jackalopes coughed it up in less than 20 minutes Friday night.
Leading by a goal entering the third period, the Jackalopes watched the visiting Texas Brahmas unleash a five-goal barrage to skate away with a 5-2 victory in Game 1 of the Southern Conference semifinals at Ector County Coliseum.
Game 2 is scheduled for 7:05 tonight at the Coliseum.
Matt Pierce, Lee Jubinville, Justin Kinnunen, Tyrell Mason and AJ Gale all scored goals for the Brahmas, the defending Central Hockey League champions. Grant Jacobsen finished with three assists and James Hiebert had a pair of helpers in the victory.
Alex Dunn and Mike Lesperance scored for the Jackalopes, with Dominic Leveille finishing with a pair of assists.
Jackalopes coach Paul Gillis was less than impressed with his team’s effort, on the whole.
“I didn’t think we played particularly well; I thought we played a little sloppy, especially in the second period,” Gillis said. “We get a 2-on-1, with two of our best players and we didn’t get a shot on goal and you can’t do that.
“We gave them their first goal by turning the puck over in our zone and then the second came off the rush where we didn’t do a good enough job in our zone. On one of them, they were on top of our goalie, I’m going to have to review that, but bottom line is it wasn’t good enough and it was a bit of a wakeup call for us and we’ve got to be better tomorrow.”
The Jackalopes started the game with plenty of pressure and it eventually paid off when Texas’ Pierce was called for interference with 8:07 left in the first period to put Odessa on the power play.
The top special-teams unit in the CHL wasted little time as just 21 seconds later, Dunn, on a cross-ice feed from Leveille, snapped a wrist shot from the left circle that beat Brahmas’ goaltender Brett Jaeger inside the right post.
Jaeger, however, would keep his team in the game the rest of the period, making a save on Sebastien Thinel on a breakaway less than a minute after the Dunn goal and then stopping a pair of quality chances in front of the net in the final two minutes.
“Jaeg’s did a great job for us tonight,” Texas coach Dan Wildfong said. “He makes that stop on the breakaway or it’s 2-0 real quick and things change.
“I told them after the second period that we were just one shot from a tie and two from leading and we got a couple of bounces and took advantage. Odessa’s such a good team, though, that this series has a long way to go and we can’t relax.”
After a scoreless second period, it took Texas just 67 seconds of the third period to knot the game.
Pierce’s marker came after the Jackalopes had control of the puck in the corner, then lost it to Jacobsen, who found Hiebert in front. The puck slid across to the left post and before Jackalopes goaltender Joel Martin could recover, Pierce slid the puck inside the left post.
Less than two minutes later, after gaining control in the neutral zone, Texas’ raced into the Jackalopes’ zone with numbers and Jubinville, taking a pass from Jordan Cameron, snapped a wrist shot through a screen that Martin never saw as the puck found the inside of the left post with 17:37 remaining in the game and the Brahmas never trailed again.
