Central Hockey League: Six Jacks score in rout over Bees

It looked very easy Tuesday night for the Odessa Jackalopes.

Of course, that’s what happens when a team works hard.

Jeff Pierce scored two goals, Mike Lesperance had four assists and the Jackalopes scored five times on the power play en route to a 7-0 victory over the Rio Grande Valley Killer Bees at Ector County Coliseum.

Philippe Plante, Collin Circelli, Mike Ramsay, Dominic Leveille and Jean Bourbeau also netted goals for the Jackalopes, who improved to 2-1 on the season with the victory.

Leveille and Sebastien Thinel all finished with two assists, with Dave Van Drunen, Pierce, Kenny Bernard, Circelli, Plante, Paul Kelly and Alex Dunn all adding one assist each.

Odessa next takes the ice at 7:05 p.m. Friday in Amarillo looking to avenge Saturday’s loss to the Gorillas. The Jackalopes return home Saturday to face Bossier-Shreveport.

“We really struggled in the power play our first couple games, we weren’t quite in sync,” Jackalopes coach Paul Gillis said. “So it was nice that it worked, and a lot of that is confidence. You get one and all of a sudden you get more confidence and you feel better about what you are doing.”

The victory was the first of the season for Jackalopes goaltender Juha Toivonen, who was making his first start of the year. He stopped all 24 shots he faced to record his second regular-season shutout, having shut out the Texas Brahmas in Games 4 and 6 of the Southern Conference Finals last season.

The Jackalopes scored the eventual game-winning goal on the power play just 5:25 into the first period, when Plante, standing at the left point, sent a shot in that went under Bernard’s arm and past Killer Bees’ goaltender Wylie Rogers inside the left post.

Less than a minute later, Pierce scored his first of the night when he redirected Circelli’s shot from the top of the right circle. Skating right to left across the top of the crease, Pierce was able to knock the shot out of the air and behind Rogers at the 6:12 mark to make it 2-0. Pierce added his second of the night at the 8:52 mark and the rout was on.