Leef and his Tornado teammates celebrating a victory (Photo credit: Robert Dombkowski)

Wednesday, October 21 @ 7:30 pm

Texas Tornado (16-6-1) vs. Wichita Falls Wildcats (8-13-2)

Dr. Pepper Stars Center in Frisco, Texas

The Texas Tornado and the Wichita Falls Wildcats are meeting for the fifth time this season. The two teams will meet again in January on the 25 and the 26 in Wichita Falls, Texas. The Tornado is 4-1-0 against the Wichita Falls this year, though the last meeting the Wildcats won 3-2 in OT against them.

The Tornado comes in off of back to back losses against the Amarillo Bulls as the scores were 5-2 on Thursday night and 7-2 on Friday night. In those two games combined, 12 goals were against the Tornado.  As we all saw on Friday night, the Tornado was sluggish when they started the game and didn’t seem to have step to their game. After the game against the Bulls, I sat down with head coach, Tony Curtale about the upcoming game against the Wildcats. Here are his thoughts after the game:

“Mostly rest for the next couple of days as our schedule has been so brutal and probably our defensive zone needs to improve”

Hopefully on Wednesday night we can see a fresh start and the defensive zone improving as to not keep Hunter Leisner up to dry with the soft goals that we saw on Friday.  Also look out for rookie forward Brandon Hawkins who has 21 goals in 23 games and his line mate, Scott Conway, who was named NAHL South Division Player for his performance in November. Conway’s 12+ rating leads the Tornado this season and his 21 points are tied for 4^th in team scoring. Those two will try and help the Texas Tornado snap out of the losing streak and get back into the win column.

But in the way of getting back into the win column for the Texas Tornado are the Wichita Wildcats who are coming off a 6-2 win over the Kenai River Brown Bears. They have struggled both putting the pucks in the net and keeping out of their own and coming into tonight’s game with a -22 goal differential. Their top player Kyle Bauman has 11 goals in 23 games and Eliot Grauer with 7 goals in 13 games.

This game will be a tight battle as the Tornado are looking to get back in the win column and looking to keep hold of the top of the South Division.  The Wildcats are looking to improve their game and their goal differential.  Every fan that is missing hockey should come out and catch the Texas Tornado. Even Dallas Stars defense man Trevor Daley is going to be there as he will drop the ceremonial puck.

Hawkins celebrating with his teammates (Photo credit: Robert Dombkowski/ Texas Tornado Hockey)

No one in the NAHL has lit up the red light more than Texas Tornado rookie forward, Brandon Hawkins, 18. The native of Macomb, Michigan, leads the Texas Tornado in goals with 16 and points with 18 thanks to his large part to his torrid month of October. In the 10 games, he netted 12 goals and picked up 4 assists in 10 games.

This is his first year with the Texas Tornado as he played for the Little Caesars Midget Major team of the High Performance Hockey League (HPHL) last season. While playing in the HPHL, he played his majority of the time as a defense but now a forward with the Tornado. “I mean I played defense all last year. Moving my feet up the ice and Coach Tony Curtale has been getting me to move my feet a lot more so I have been improving a lot on my game as a forward.”

He also said due to his big performance in October and getting the honors of being named the NAHL forward of the month was a big thanks to his line mates Scott Conway and Jason Eddy. “It actually felt great getting those honors of being named NAHL forward of the month. It came a lot from my line mates Scott Conway and Jason Eddy. They have been working their butts off and just trying to go to the net hard.”

Even Tornado head coach Tony Curtale told me that having Brandon Hawkins on the Tornado has been an honor too. “Brandon is a rookie obviously, a young player with an NHL shot…one of the best shots I have coached in Texas for 10 years. He can score a lot of goals. He deserved the player of the month awards. We are just working on his other habits and conditioning (all of other things) so it can happen at the next level. But we think down the road he is going to be excellent for us and be a great D 1 player.”

Hawkins so far has made a big impact on the game of hockey and for the Texas Tornado (14-4-1) who is currently sitting at the second spot in the South Division behind the Topeka Road Runners (14-3-2) as they are looking to win their second Robertson Cup Championship. But as we look at Hawkins’ game and wonder where his love for the game of hockey came from. We would all guess it would be his Dad but he told Blackout Dallas who it was. “I actually have two inspirations. They would be Phil Kessel of the Toronto Maple Leafs and Brett Hull when played for the Detroit Red Wings.”

Brandon Hawkins is still young and will develop into a great hockey player but right now he is living his dream right now playing for the Texas Tornado.  Hopefully he can keep up the goals and lead the mighty Texas Tornado to another Robertson Cup Championship.