Central Hockey League: Jackalopes knock off IceRays
With just nine games remaining in the regular season heading into Friday’s game against Corpus Christi, the Odessa Jackalopes were looking to correct a few small issues that have cropped up over the past few weeks.
The IceRays, however, made the Jackalopes fight for every inch of ice, which in the end may have been the best medicine of all.
Weathering an early push by Corpus Christi in the third period, Odessa used a pair of Jeff Pierce goals to hold off the IceRays, 5-3, in front of 3,216 at Ector County Coliseum.
Alex Dunn, Troy Ofukany and Collin Circelli also scored one goal for the Jackalopes, with Pierce, Circelli and Sebastien Thinel finishing with two assists each.
“I thought we had a good effort,” Jackalopes coach Paul Gillis said. “I thought we competed hard for 60 minutes and I thought it was a good game.
“Their first two lines, the (Justin) Quenneville line and the (Chris) Richards line are as good as any line in this league. That’s a team that is battling for its playoff life and we knew they were going to come hard and they did and that’s the type of game that we need to play.”
The victory improved the Jackalopes to 41-11-4 on the season and drops the magic number of points needed to clinch the Southern Conference title to eight. Odessa returns to the ice at 7:05 tonight when it plays host to the Laredo Bucks.
Richards scored a pair of third-period goals for the IceRays (26-23-7), in the first 2:25 of the third period, his second marker bringing Corpus Christi to within one, 4-3.
But Pierce scored his second goal of the game with 7:51 left to play in the contest, taking a pass from Circelli at the top of the IceRays’ zone and skating into the right circle before letting a wrist shot go that beat Corpus Christi goaltender Kevin Beech on his glove side, caroming off the bottom of the crossbar inside the right post.
“He’s so good low that you have to go high,” Pierce said of the shot. “I was able to get it just in the right spot.
“This was a big win for us and (tonight’s) another big night.”
Circelli got the scoring started in the first period, scoring the only marker of the first 20 minutes just 9:28 into the contest.
With Thinel skating out from the left of Beech, Pierce and Circelli went to the net and Thinel fed the puck into the crease, looking for Pierce. But the puck bounced through to Circelli at the left post and he slid his shot back toward the right post along the goal line. Beech swung out his right arm to try and make the save, but the puck slid under his arm and just across the goal line for the score.
“I didn’t know if it was going to make it,” Circelli said. “He got a piece of it, but it got through, barely.”
>> ICE CHIPS: The Central Hockey League announced the finalists for several postseason awards Friday and three Jackalopes are in the running for recognition.
Forward Sebastien Thinel, the reigning league MVP, has again been nominated for that honor, along with Bruce Graham of Allen, Kevin Ulanski of Colorado, Chad Wollard of Corpus Christi and Les Reaney of Rapid City.
Goaltender Joel Martin is among five netminders in line for Most Outstanding Goaltender,a long with Chris Whitley of Allen, Charlie Effinger of Missour, Danny Battochio of Rapid City and Brett Jaeger of Texas.
Among blue liners, Odessa’s Alex Dunn, Colorado’s Aaron Schneekloth, Simon Mangos of Bossier-Shreveport, Jamie VanderVeeken of Rapid City and Derek Eastman of Tulsa are in the running for Most Outstanding Defenseman.
