Lone Star Brahmas First Half Review

Photo Courtesy of David Dudich: The Lone Star Brahmas get instruction from Head Coach Dan Wildfong during a break in the action.

The Lone Star Brahmas opened their first NAHL South Division campaign on a positive note with a 4 – 3 overtime win against the visiting Rio Grande Killer Bees. The following night, the Brahmas pulled another point out of the series with a 2 – 1 overtime loss to Rio Grande. The quick start was despite their extremely late start on assembling a team due to the delayed sale of the team that was mishandled by the previous owner Consolidated Sports Holdings.

The three point season opening series also gave Brahmas fans a false sense of hope entering the NAHL Showcase in Blaine, MN. The four games in Blaine started a ten game stretch in which Lone Star won only a single game against Topeka on October 5^th.

The first winning streak of the season came with a 3 – 2 shootout win against Rio Grande on October 19^th and a 3 – 2 home win against the Odessa Jackalopes. However, the Brahmas came our of that two game win streak with another five straight losses including a 7 – 0 loss to Amarillo at home and a 9 – 1 drubbing in Wichita Falls. The night after the lopsided loss to the Wildcats, Lone Star came back with a 2 – 1 win against Wichita Falls at the NyTex Sports Centre.

A split with Topeka in mid November was followed by another four game losing streak before the Amarillo Bulls came into North Richland Hills for a two game series. The early December games against the defending Robertson Cup National Champions and league leading Bulls was likely the high point of the first half of the season for the Brahmas. Lone Star dominated the series against Amarillo winning game one by a 4 – 1 score and following that up with a 4 – 0 shutout win. The sweep started the Bulls on a seven game winless streak.

Just four days after shutting out Amarillo, the Brahmas went to Wichita Falls looking to stretch their win streak to three games. They may have been on a bit of a high from their two big wins and fell flat with a 6 – 2 loss. The weekend prior to the Christmas break Rio Grande was back in town for two games. The Brahmas played well in game one allowing only two second period power play goals to fall 2 – 0. On Saturday they bounced back with a big 4 – 3 shootout win to go into the break on a high note.

Lone Star wrapped up the first half of the season with a 9 – 19 – 2 record leaving them tied for last in the division with the Odessa Jackalopes at 20 points. The Brahmas do have three games in hand over Odessa which should give them a hand up in the standings. Lone Star has been showing positive signs of steady improvement of late. Six of the 20 points came in the last five games since the calendar rolled over to December.

The second half of the season will get underway with a series in Odessa on Friday the 27^th. The game against the Jackalopes also kicks off a grueling six games in eight days stretch with all games on the road. After closing the series in Odessa on Saturday night the Brahmas will head to the pan handle for games against Amarillo on Sunday and Tuesday. They will wrap up with a trip to Hidalgo to face Rio Grande on Friday and Saturday January 3^rd and 4^th.

A Monthly Look Inside The Numbers

First Half Record

GP

W

L

OTL

PTS

Win%

Sept

8

1

6

1

3

0.188

Oct

7

3

4

0

6

0.429

Nov

10

2

7

1

5

0.250

Dec

5

3

2

0

6

0.600

30

9

19

2

20

0.333

First Half Scoring

Goals For

Goals Against

Goal Dif

Goal / Gm

GA / Gm

Goal Dif / GM

Sept

16

36

-20

2.00

4.50

-2.50

Oct

20

23

-3

2.86

3.29

-0.43

Nov

14

39

-25

1.40

3.90

-2.50

Dec

14

12

2

2.80

2.40

0.40

64

110

-46

2.13

3.67

-1.53

First Half Shots On Goal

Shots Against

SOG Dif

Shots For / Gm

Shots Against / Gm

Shot Dif / Gm

Sept

145

301

-156

18.13

37.63

-20

Oct

144

245

-101

20.57

35.00

-14

Nov

199

297

-98

19.90

29.70

-10

Dec

102

139

-37

20.40

27.80

-7

590

982

-392

19.67

32.73

-13

First Half Special Teams Comparison

PIM / GM

PPG

PPO

PP Eff

PPG Allowed

Times Short Handed

PK Eff

PP Dif

Sept

30

2

31

6.5%

11

46

76.1%

-9

Oct

11.57

6

21

28.6%

7

29

75.9%

-1

Nov

28.7

1

46

2.2%

12

49

75.5%

-11

Dec

23.6

7

27

25.9%

5

23

78.3%

2

24.2

16

125

12.8%

35

147

76.2%

-19

First Half Highlights

AJ Duggan (Alex Dagnal, Alexey Solovyev) had the first regular season goal in team history coming at the 14:39 mark of the second period of the season opening game against the Rio Grande Killer Bees.

Mattias Solerqvist picked up the first win in team history in the same game. The game was also the fist overtime win in team history.

The Brahmas had two Hat-Tricks during the first half of the season. Ryan Watson had the first on October 5^th in a 5 – 3 win over Topeka. The second was by Matt Lison on December 6^th in a 4 – 1 win against Amarillo.

TJ Black had the first shutout in team history against Amarillo on December 7^th.

On November 21st Matt Lison was named Captain to replace AJ Duggan who had left the team due to injury.

Six of the 30 games played have gone beyond regulation. Two were decided in overtime while four others went to a shootout. The Brahmas have won 4 of the 6 games.

There have been a total of 40 players who have played at least one game for the Brahmas this season.

Three Brahma players have received recognition in NAHL Stars of the Week voting. Ryan Watson received Honorable Mention the week of October 7^th. TJ Black was the South Division Star of the Week for the week of December 9^th while Matt Lison received Honorable Mention.

Team Leaders