Lone Star Brahmas Fall Short Against Rio Grande
By Kirk Estes
Photo courtesy of David Dudich: The Killer Bees defense had Gordie Helmuth and the Lone Star Brahmas bottled up for most of the evening in a 4 – 1 Brahmas loss at the NyTex Sports Centre.
The Lone Star Brahmas and the Rio Grande Killer Bees faced off Friday night in the opening game of their weekend series. The series will be the culmination of the season series between the two teams.
Lone Star came out kind of sluggish with much of the play early on their side of the ice. With so much of the time spent in the Brahmas’ defensive zone it was only a matter of time before Rio Grande opened the scoring. With 5:51 left in the first the Killer Bees got on the board on a pass from the near point by Luke Bafia to Ian Janco at the opposite point. Janco’s low wrister found its way past a screened TJ Black’s right skate. At 16:55, a broken play led to a second Bees goal. Bafia attempted to send a pass across ice that ricocheted off a defenseman’s stick right onto the tape of Anthony Croston and he fired it off of Black’s glove and in. Truman Gonzales picked up the secondary assist on the play.
Killer Bees Captain Tyler Bruneteau extend Rio Grande’s lead in the second off a rebound. Croston made a strong move to the front of the net and Black made the point blank save, but could not regain his feet in time to contest the shot from Bruneteau. Dylan Abood also picked up an assist on the goal which came at the 17:25 mark.
Rio Grande’s Cam Ashley was running his mouth throughout the game and continued as the teams came out for the third. When they lined up for the opening faceoff he was paired up with Paul Fregeau who had been the target of his verbal jabs. When the puck dropped Ashley removed his cage and then proceeded to get pummeled by Fregeau who jerseyed him and rained down right hands until the linesmen could pull them apart. Ashley got the gate for removing his helmet and was wobbly going off the ice.
Rio Grande went up by four goals at the 3:34 mark of the third on a defensive breakdown when defensemen Donovan Gardiner and Austin Thielges both went after Croston who carried the puck into the zone along the far boards on a rush. Their error left Evan Schmidbauer all alone in front and he put it off the crossbar and in.
The Brahmas finally got on the board at 10:30 to avoid the shutout. Anthony Mousseau punched the puck between three Bees defenders at the blueline turning Fregeau loose on a rush. Fregeau’s wrister beat Olli Kalkaja high glove side.
The Killer Bees won a lopsided shots on goal battle 28 – 14 and both teams were 0 – 1 on the power play.
Elsewhere Around the NAHL South
Odessa at Corpus Christi
The Odessa Jackalopes went into the American Bank Center and handed the Icerays their fifth straight loss by a score of 5 – 2. Ian Mansfield scored for Odessa at 11:07 of the first only to see Nick Monfils tie it up six seconds later. The Jackalopes got a pair of goals from Connor Thie to take a two goal lead into the first intermission. After a scoreless second period, Leo Lumm and Lukas Laub sandwiched goals around a Grant Hutton tally for the final score. Eric Hancock made 23 saves for the win.
Amarillo at Wichita Falls
The Bulls potted two goals in each of the first and second periods and held off the Wildcats for the 4 – 3 win. Mitch McPherson and Cody Gilling had the first period goals with Brendan McGuire and Mike Davis accounting for the second period scoring. Wichita Falls had one goal in each period starting with Josh Haverstrom followed by Kyle Bauman and Evan Okeley. Paul Berrafato picked up the win facing 35 shots on goal.
Topeka at Springfield
The Topeka Roadrunners took to the ice for the first time since the passing of Peter Halash in a one car accident on January 4th. Tyler Poulsen, Jasen Fernsler and Jake Kamrass each had goals in leading the Roadrunners to the 3 – 0 win. PJ Bridges made 24 saves for the shutout win.
Current NAHL South Standings
TEAM |
GP
W
L
OTL
PTS
PCT
Amarillo
40
28
10
2
58
0.725
Topeka
37
22
11
4
48
0.649
Rio Grande
39
20
12
7
47
0.603
Wichita Falls
37
21
13
3
45
0.608
Corpus Christi
40
13
20
7
33
0.413
Lone Star
39
13
23
3
29
0.372
Odessa
37
11
24
2
24
0.324