Central Hockey League: Power play prowess pushes Jacks ahead of IceRays
The Odessa Jackalopes have the top power play in the Central Hockey League, converting more than 25 percent of their man-advantage opportunities.
They also have the second-best penalty kill in the league, stopping more than 87 percent of opponent’s chances.
On Tuesday night against the Corpus Christi IceRays, Odessa was much better than that — on both ends.
Given five chances with the extra skater, Odessa converted on three of them and easily handled Corpus Christi 5-2 in front of 2,883 at Ector County Coliseum.
Odessa also killed off all eight Corpus Christi power plays.
Mike Ramsay scored two power-play markers to lead the Jackalopes, with Jeff Pierce, Brian Swiniarski and Dominic Leveille also finding the back of the net for Odessa.
Ramsay now has scored seven goals in the past five games.
“It’s nice, let’s keep it going,” Ramsay said of the production. “This was a good win for us because Corpus is battling hard for a playoff spot.”
Sebastien Thinel had three assists, with Leveille and Kenny Bernard each finishing with a pair of helpers for the Jackalopes (35-6-4).
The victory sets up a weekend battle with perennial Northern Conference power Colorado on Friday and Saturday at the Coliseum.
Ryan Bennett and RG Flath scored for the IceRays (18-19-6), who remained tied with Rio Grande Valley for the final (fifth) playoff spot in the Southern Conference.
Both teams started off well, with scoring chances at both ends of the ice in the first 10 minutes of action. Then, just after the midway point of the first period, Corpus Christi’s Adam Powell went to the penalty box for a slashing call on Odessa’s Collin Circelli and the Jackalopes quickly cashed it in.
Winning the faceoff in the IceRays’ zone, the puck was cycled back to Philippe Plante at the top of the right circle and the veteran defenseman sent a shot low to the ice that Pierce, at the top of the crease, was able to redirect between the pads of Corpus Christi goaltender Kevin Beech with 9:44 left in the first period.
Ramsay’s first of the night, just over three minutes later, was the result of end-to-end hustle by the forward as he was back in front of Jackalopes goaltender Juha Toivonen to break up a 2-on-1 effort by Corpus Christi, then raced up the right-wing boards to get back into the play.
Bernard started the scoring effort with a pass out of his zone to Dominic Leveille, who carried into the left circle before sending a cross-ice pass to Ramsay, who unloaded a slapshot from the right circle that beat Beech inside the left post at the 13:26 mark.
“I thought we had good energy from the start tonight,” Jackalopes coach Paul Gillis said. “Corpus is battling for their playoff lives and they have a good team over there.
“I thought out penalty kill did a better job tonight. (Assistant coach) Matt (Cressman) sat down with our penalty killers and went over some things and it was much better tonight.”
