Central Hockey League: Jacks thump Brahmas
NORTH RICHLAND HILLS The Odessa Jackalopes knew that in order to extend their season they were going to have to find a way to solve Texas Brahmas goaltender Brett Jaeger.
On Friday night, for the second consecutive contest, Odessa did just that and now comes home back in control of the Southern Conference semifinals series.
Sebastien Thinel scored a pair of goals, and goaltender Juha Toivonen stopped 27 of the 28 shots he faced to lead the Jackalopes to a 5-1 victory in Game 4 at the NYTEX Sports Centre.
The best-of-7 series is now tied 2-2 with Game 5 scheduled for 7:05 tonight at the Ector County Coliseum. Game 6 is scheduled for 7:05 p.m. Monday back in North Richland Hills.
The road team has won all four games.
Mike Ramsay, Collin Circelli and Jeff Pierce also scored goals for the Jackalopes, with Kenny Bernard finishing with a pair of assists in the victory.
This is the second consecutive season that the Jackalopes have lost the first two games of the conference semifinals, only to even the series on the road. Odessa defeated Laredo 4-2 in last year’s semifinals.
“We came here and did what we had to do,” Odessa coach Paul Gillis said. “Juha certainly played well for us again tonight, but things got a little dicey there in the third period when they (Texas) were going for it offensively and we had a couple of five-minute lapses.
“There has to be some momentum shift heading back home; we knew that we could come back, but there is always some doubt and I think we erased that. But we know that we still have a lot of work to do against a very good hockey club that’s going to come at us hard again.”
Ramsay started the victory with his second goal of the playoffs and second in as many games, taking a loose puck between the circles in front of Jaeger and snapping a wrist shot past the Brahmas’ net minder just 7:09 into the game.
Circelli then netted the eventual game winner on the power play, taking a pass from Alex Dunn at the 12:53 mark to put Odessa up 2-0 and quiet the crowd.
Then, when Thinel found the back of the net just over two minutes later, Texas coach Dan Wildfong, for the second straight night, sent Joe Palmer in to replace Jaeger in net.
After a scoreless second period, Pierce made it 4-0 for the Jackalopes with his third goal of the players at the 7:11 mark of the final period and then Texas’ Kevin Seibel spoiled Toivonen’s shutout bid with a goal at the 14:18 mark.
Toivonen is now 9-1 in the playoffs the past two seasons, including a pair of shutouts of the Brahmas in last year’s conference finals series.
Finally, with the Brahmas scrambling to get back in the game, Thinel gathered in a loose puck in the left circle and found the net for the second time on the night to seal the victory, with 1:13 remaining in regulation.
