The Odessa Jackalopes are not where they want to be, sitting on the outside looking in at a playoff berth.
With the North American Hockey League 2022-23 season nearing its midway point, they are within striking distance.
The Jackalopes closed out the 2022 portion of the schedule at home in December, winning five of their final seven games in the calendar year.
That moved them to 12-14-0-1, good for 25 points and sixth place in the South Division.
Odessa is just seven points out of third place in the division, currently held by New Mexico and Shreveport, with 33 games remaining in the regular season.
“At the end of the day, we are starting to play the right way,” Jackalopes head coach Scott Deur said. “I think the biggest difference is that we are more worried about ourselves and less about the other team.”
The Jackalopes’ Achilles heel this season has been the Oklahoma Warriors, who relocated from Wichita Falls after last season.
Odessa is 0-6 against them this season, with a few close games and a few not-so-close results.
The bright spot for the Jackalopes is that they are 11-6 against the rest of the division to this point and will only face the Warriors two more times until the end of the season.
The Jackalopes are back from the Christmas break and back on the ice in preparation for their annual road trip in conjunction with the SandHills Stock Show and Rodeo at the Ector County Coliseum.
They will be in Corpus Christi on Jan. 5-6, travel to Amarillo on Jan. 13-14, head to the Metroplex for one game against Lone Star on Jan. 16 and then cap their three-week, seven-game road trip in Shreveport, La., on Jan. 20-21.
Odessa is a combined 8-3 against those teams and has a chance, with a solid month of effort, of moving into a playoff berth before it returns to home ice the final weekend in January.
“It’s going to be good to get out on the road,” Deur said. “The team bonds a little more during the trip and everyone is focused on hockey.
“They are used to the travel. We were on the road to start the season, so they know what to do.”
The Jackalopes are led offensively by Ryan Mansfield, Tanyon Bajzar and Emerson Goode, with goaltender Gergely Orosz the final line of defense.
Mansfield, the team’s captain, and Bajzar each have 24 points to led the scoring charts, with Goode just behind at 19.
“I let the players select their captain,” Deur said. “I usually wait for a leadership group to develop; last year I think it was February, but they finally came in and said can we name some captains and I was like “Now you guys are ready and this is your team.’
“Ryan Mansfield, he’s in his second year here; really took off last year around Christmas time and he is our leader. The guys look up to him, he does things the right way.”
Orosz, acquired in a trade at the beginning of the season from Aberdeen (S.D.), is 9-8 with 2.87 goals against average and a .922 save percentage.
He recently posted his first shutout of the season and was named the league’s South Division star for the Week of Dec. 5-12.
“Obviously Greg been stellar in net for us,” Deur said. “That’s been a huge thing for us; he’s committed to UAA (University of Alaska-Anchorage).
“The next two months is going to be really exciting for us because we are on the road. I like this group; I like where they’re headed and I like where their mindset is at.”
>> Follow Lee Scheide on Twitter at @OALeeScheide
