Pro Hockey: Jacks wait for playoff opponent
After battling through five months of regular-season games, the Odessa Jackalopes now are in a wait-and-see mode regarding the 2009-2010 Central Hockey League playoffs.
That’s one of the spoils that comes from posting the best record, not only in the Southern Conference, but the entire league — everyone has to come to you to get to the Ray Miron Presidents’ Cup Finals.
Odessa will face either Corpus Christi or defending CHL champion Texas in the conference semifinals, which are set to begin either Friday, March 26 or Saturday, March 27.
“We’d love to be playing Friday and Saturday for the first two games,” Jackalopes co-owner Rick Gasser said. “We just don’t know yet and that’s tough.”
That’s because the IceRays and Brahmas have to do battle in a best-of 3 miniseries beginning Monday in Corpus Christi. The teams will travel Tuesday and resume the series Wednesday in North Richland Hills.
Should one team sweep the first two games, Gasser will get his wish for a Friday start. A series going the distance, however, means a Saturday-Sunday set of games in the Permian Basin.
Jackalopes players aren’t worried about when they start or which team they face. They are happy to have both made the playoffs and worked hard enough to earn home ice advantage throughout the postseason.
“This team has worked hard all year, from our opening game with Corpus Christi,” co-captain Kory Karlander said. “It was nice to clinch home ice in the playoffs a little early, so we didn’t have to worry about it during the final weekend and we could focus on playing hockey.
“There’s no real preference because all the teams, from 1 to 5, are solid and you have to be ready to play every night. But we’ve worked hard to make it difficult for other teams to come in here and win and that’s something we’re proud of.”
Odessa, heading into Saturday’s regular-season finale with the Rapid City Rush, had fashioned a 25-4-2 record at Ector County Coliseum, the best home mark in the Central Hockey League.
Of those four home losses, one is against Texas, another against Allen, which will face Laredo in the other Southern Conference semifinal, with Bossier-Shreveport and Colorado the other home, regulation defeats.
The Jackalopes are 2-2 this season against Texas. It was the Brahmas who knocked Odessa from the postseason last year with a Game 7 victory in the Southern Conference Final.
Odessa has had much better success against Corpus Christi this season, going 6-0-1 against the IceRays, including five consecutive victories since a shootout loss on Oct. 30.
All those records, though, get thrown out the window at this point of the season. If the Jackalopes need a reminder they just need to research the last time the squad won the Governors’ Cup in 2001-02.
After winning 47 games that season, Odessa bowed out in the first round to the El Paso Buzzards, three games to two.
“You can’t worry about what you’ve done to get to the playoffs,” Odessa’s Sebastien Thinel said. “Having the best record means that every team that comes in here wants to win and that means we have to play more focused and do the things that have made us successful all season.
“It’s exciting to be back in the playoffs and our goal, like every year, is to win the championship.”
They just don’t know when the journey will start.
