Brahmas Saddled With Lopsided Loss By Wildcats
By Kirk Estes
Photo Courtesy of David Dudich: David Zevnik and the Wildcats were too much for the Brahmas once again in Wichita Falls getting the 7 – 2 win.
The Brahmas unfortunately, saw history repeat itself on their trip to Wichita Falls, suffering another lopsided loss to the Wildcats in the NAHL’s only game of the night.
Things were looking fairly promising and even through the first 14 minutes of the first until Wichita Falls opened up the offense. At 14:04 a turn over in the defensive zone along the near boards led to Stan Sojka firing a shot off TJ Black from the faceoff dot. Kyle Bauman took a swipe at it from in front with the rebound kicking out to the right where Will Vosejpka put it past Black. It didn’t take long for the Wildcats to score again off a battle along the end boards. Alfred Johansson poked the puck loose and Rudy Junda sent it out front to Vosejpka and his second goal of the night at 15:20. Just 41 seconds later Vosejpka looked as though he would make a bid for a hat trick as he skated into the zone and to the front of the net drawing three defenders. He then dropped it to Kirk Van Arkel in the high slot for a wrister stick side chasing Black from the net. The Wildcats would go on the power play with just over a minute to go when Alexey Solovyev threw what appeared to be a clean hip check on Vosejpka as he headed to the net on a break. Wichita Falls cashed in with just 2 ticks left on the clock on a Junda shot from the slot that was deflected in front high over Jett Salinas’ blocker.
Just 26 seconds into the second, the Brahmas were hit with another questionable whistle. The puck was sent toward the Wichita Falls net with Liam Stirtzinger chasing. Stirtzinger outlegged Andrew Kerr to the puck forcing David Zevnik to cover up. Stirtzinger stopped at the edge of the crease and Kerr came flying in to cross check him to the end boards. In a baffling turn of events, Stirtzinger went to the box and Kerr skated back to the bench. Lone Star managed to kill off the penalty, but two valuable minutes were gone.
At the 14:17 mark Jake Townsend sent the puck on net from the left wing and Salinas made the save, but as he tried to dive on the rebound it squirted out from under his glove. Junda was there to poke the puck out of the paint and across the line.
With time winding down the Brahmas finally got on the board. Ben Owen slid the puck up the near wall to Stirtzinger at the point. Stirtzinger fired a slapshot on goal, Paul Fregeau hustling into the play put the rebound in the back of the net from the edge of the paint. Time of the goal was 19:27.
In the third period, Bauman started the Wildcats next scoring play by picking Michael Crowley’s pocket in neutral ice and going the other way with Josh Haverstrom. They ran the give and go perfectly with Bauman picking the top right corner at 6:28.
Lone Star was down, but they were not done just yet. Solovyev did some strong work at the defensive blue line to dislodge the puck from Sam Pizza. Solovyev carried the puck into the zone with RJ Salvato on his left and Ryan Watson trailing the play. Solovyev and Salvato drew the defense leaving Watson alone at center for the pass from Solovyev and the score. The goal came at 13:22.
At 18:41 the Brahmas had the puck in the offensive zone and were moving the puck around the perimeter. Austin Thielges got the puck at the near point and maybe tried to do a bit too much on his own, turning it over to Collin Staub. Staub and Van Arkel were off to the races with Donovan Gardiner in hot pursuit. Gardiner made it back and went down to block the pass, but just missed. Van Arkel put it over Salinas to close out the scoring.
The Wildcat outshot the Brahmas 45 – 26 and had the only power play goal of the game going 1 – 3. The Brahmas were 0 – 4 with the man advantage.
The Brahmas will now head to Amarillo for a pair of games against the Bulls on Friday and Saturday nights.