Central Hockey League: Jackalopes take first loss in regulation in nearly a month

The score doesn’t do this game justice, but that doesn’t do the Odessa Jackalopes any good.

Taking advantage of a pair of goals by Jim Jackson and fortuitous bounces for Kevin Ulanski and Steven Haddon, the Colorado Eagles skated into the Permian Basin and defeated Odessa 5-3 on Friday night at Ector County Coliseum.

Mike Ramsay scored a pair of power-play goals for Odessa and Sebastien Thinel added the other goal for the Jackalopes (35-7-4), who lost in regulation for the first time since Jan. 8 against Mississippi.

Kory Karlander had two assists, with Kenny Bernard, Dominic Leveille, Philippe Plante and Joel Martin adding one helper each for the Jackalopes, who will host the Eagles at 7:05 tonight.

“I wasn’t happy with the way we played tonight,” Jackalopes coach Paul Gillis said. “I don’t think we competed the way we are capable of and we didn’t battle hard enough in the one-on-one situations and that’s something we are going to have to do better (Saturday night).

“That’s a good hockey club over there, a veteran team, and they are going to take advantage of every chance they get and they did. We need to do a better job.”

The Eagles (28-9-5) came into the game two points behind Rapid City for the top spot in the Northern Conference race and out shot Odessa 21-17 in a fast-paced first period that ended in a scoreless tie.

Ramsay then put the Jackalopes on the board first with a nice finish on an end-to-end rush with Karlander. Starting the play in his own end along the left-wing boards, Ramsay raced to neutral ice and fed Karlander, who skated into the Colorado zone into the right circle.

Ramsay never stopped charging the net and when Karlander cut toward Eagles’ goaltender Mike Mole, Ramsay was there for the redirect inside the left post of Karlander’s pass through the crease at the 6:27 mark of the second period.

Jackson knotted the score with his first of the night, snapping a shot into the upper right corner of the net from the top of the Odessa zone that goaltender Martin never saw through a screen of bodies in front.

“He practices that shot all the time,” said Eagles captain Riley Nelson, who added an empty-net goal to cap the scoring. “We knew coming in here that we were going to have to play at the top of our game because they don’t give up many games in this building.

“I thought we played hard tonight and we are going to have to play harder against tomorrow because you know that they are going to be coming right at us.”

Ulanski put the Eagles ahead for good with a short-handed goal with 1:13 left in the second period, taking a feed from Nelson and racing through the left circle all alone on Martin, who made the initial save.

The puck, however, instead of bouncing away off Martin’s pads, fell straight down at his feet and before he could react, Ulanski poked the puck through Martin’s skates and into the net.

“That’s a tough goal to give up, short-handed, in the final two minutes of a period,” Gillis said. “But again, that’s a situation where we didn’t battle hard enough in open ice and it turned into a goal for them.”

It was 3-1 in favor of Colorado when Haddon’s took advantage of another bounce, this time off the end boards as the Eagles were trying to send the puck around the Jackalopes’ zone behind Martin.

The puck, though, caromed off a seam in the glass and out in front of the left post, where a stunned Martin could only watch Haddon bury his shot inside the left post with 9:14 gone in the third period, just 12 seconds after Jackson’s second goal of the night.