Brahmas Bowled Over By Amarillo 9 – 2
By Kirk Estes
The Lone Star Brahmas went into Amarillo riding a three game win streak that started two weeks ago with a 2 – 0 shutout of the Bulls in Amarillo. With a break in their NAHL schedule, the Bulls had not played since that night and obviously had plenty of time to stew on the loss.
Amarillo opened the offensive flood gates in the first starting when Mike Davis pulled the puck out of a scrum along the half wall. Davis skated toward the far post and fed it to Tyler Gernhofer in the high slot for a shot top shelf at 8:23. The Gernhofer goal started a string of four goals in under four minutes. Just 17 seconds after scoring his first, Gernhofer found the back of the net again off a steal deep in the Brahmas zone. At 10:12 Cody Gylling put back a rebound of a Brendan McGuire shot from the point with Eric Purcell picking up the secondary assist. The goal by Gylling ended TJ Black’s night early with Jett Salinas coming on. Just under two minutes later Brendan Vetter put a shot over Salinas’ glove hand from the top of the near circle with McGuire and Patrick Pollock getting the assists. A turn over behind he Brahmas’ net led to Timmy Moore walking out front and putting it past Salinas through a crowd in front at 17:13 to take a 5 – 0 lead into the first intermission.
The second period was once again all Amarillo. Eric Purcell scored at 11:22 after skating out from behind the cage and getting Salinas to drop then picking the top corner. Just 24 seconds later Roman Ammirato skated the puck into the zone and fired a shot on net, but Salinas made the save. With the rebound laying on the ice Nick Blase collided with Salinas leaving the net wide open for Mitchell McPherson to poke the puck into.
The Brahmas finally got on the board at 8:41 of the third to avoid the shutout. Roman Uchyn skated it out front before being tripped up. As he was going down Uchyn put the puck on net and Paul Berrafato left the rebound in the paint. Sebastian Vidmar put it through Berrafato from just off the near post. Matt Lison logged the secondary assist on the play.
Kyle Gattelaro responded to the Vidmar goal at 10:16. With Davis in Salinas’ lap, Gattelaro was able to put it past the Brahmas netminder with Joe Grabowski also getting an assist. Ammirato followed with a 5 on 3 power play goal at the 12:40 mark from Matt Sieckhaus, Tyler Gernhofer.
With the Brahmas on the power play and 4:41 left in the game, Anthony Mousseau gave the puck to Uchyn whose shot went off of Berrafato and behind the net. Vidmar picked it up and stuffed it inside the far post for his second of the night.
Not only was there a lopsided score, but the shots on goal were rather lopsided as well. Amarillo outshot the Brahmas 46 – 27. Both teams had a power play goal with Amarillo going 1 – 3 and the Brahmas 1 – 2. Lone Star will look to rebound tomorrow night as they close out the two game series with the Bulls.
Elsewhere Around the NAHL South Division
Former Brahma forward Todd Koritzinsky put Wichita Falls in front late in the first period, but Topeka came back with a Cody Champagne power play goal in the second and a Jake Kamrass tally in the third for the 2 – 1 win. The game featured 76 total penalty minutes in the second period. PJ Bridges made 39 saves for the win.
Corpus Christi at Rio Grande Valley
The Icerays got out to an early lead in the first, but Brenden Dunning pulled the Killer Bees even just 2:28 later with a power play goal. Rio Grande took the lead for good at 15:08 of the first on a Dan Kucerovy goal. In the third Jared Dedenbach picked up an insurance goal for Rio Grande which proved to be valuable as Corpus Christi scored just 32 seconds later, but could never get any closer. Olli Kalkaja was in net for the win.
Current NAHL South Division Standings
| TEAM | GP |
W
L
OTL
PTS
PCT
Amarillo
47
33
12
2
68
0.723
Topeka
45
28
12
5
61
0.678
Rio Grande
47
26
14
7
59
0.628
Wichita Falls
44
23
18
3
49
0.557
Corpus Christi
48
16
22
10
42
0.438
Lone Star
48
17
28
3
37
0.385
Odessa
47
13
30
4
30
0.319