Pro hockey: Gorillas beat up on Jackalopes

Things didn’t start off well Tuesday for the Odessa Jackalopes as they watched the Amarillo Gorillas score 16 seconds into the Central Hockey League match.

Things were looking a little brighter for the home team when John Osborne answered for Odessa just 36 seconds later.

Then, Amarillo decided to turn out the lights.

Amarillo scored four goals on its first five shots in the first period to catapult itself to a 9-5 victory in front of an announced crowd of 2,070 at Ector County Coliseum.

“We weren’t ready to play,” Odessa coach Paul Gillis said. “I wasn’t happy with the morning skate and I addressed it and we thought we had caught it, but we didn’t. That was our first real stinker of the year at home. I thought that our goaltending was awful, our forwards were awful, our defense was awful, our power play was awful and our penalty kill was awful.”

The combined 14 goals tied a season high in a game involving Odessa. The Jackalopes lost 8-6 to the Arizona Sundogs on Jan. 19.

It was the first regulation loss at home for Odessa (22-11-7) in 13 games.

John Osborne had two goals for Odessa, while Dominic Leveille, Kevin Wilson and Brian Swiniarski all had one goal. Mario Joly had two assists, while Wilson, Swiniarski, Mike Rutter, Alex Dunn and Sebastien Thinel each had with one assist.

Rutter’s assist on Leveille’s goal was his 200th with the team, making him just the second in club history to reach that plateau. Rutter trails Scott Hillman, who had 260 assists.

Bill Vandermeer had two goals and two assists for Amarillo (14-22-6), which pulled within one point (35-34) of idle Corpus Christi for the fifth playoff spot in the Southern Conference.

Amarillo took its first lead on the first shift of the game when Shaun Arvai, in the slot, blasted a pass from Nate Fornataro past Odessa goaltender Alexandre Vincent.

After Osborne knotted the score 1-1 for Odessa, Grant Selinger put Amarillo ahead to stay when he banged home a shot at the left post with 4:49 gone in the game.

When Vandermeer scored his first goal of the night less than two minutes later, Gillis lifted Vincent for Mike Gorman, who was greeted rudely just 67 seconds later when Chris Lipsett found the back of the net with 12:18 left in the first period to make it 4-1.

RACKING UP THE GOALS

The highest scoring games for the Odessa Jackalopes this season, with date, opponent and final score with outcome:

14

Date Opponent Result

Jan. 29 vs. Amarillo 9-5, L

Jan. 19 at Arizona 8-6, L

10

Date Opponent Result

Oct. 30 at New Mexico 6-4, W

9

Date Opponent Result

Oct. 26 vs. Oklahoma City 6-3, L

Nov. 17 at Austin 5-4, L

Dec. 7 vs. New Mexico 5-4, L

Dec. 31 at Amarillo 6-3, W

Jan. 25 vs. New Mexico 6-3, W

Source: www.jackalopes.org; www.centralhockeyleague.com

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>> Odessa Jackalopes vs. Youngstown Steelhounds

7:05 p.m. Friday

Ector County Coliseum, Odessa