Photo Courtesy of David Dudich: Nick Blase’s second period goal gave the Brahmas a 2 – 0 lead, but they could not hold it settling for a single point in a 3 – 2 in a shootout loss.
The Lone Star Brahmas let one slip away to the Rio Grande Killer Bees after building a two goal lead. In the first period the only scoring came off the stick of Alexey Solovyev as he attacked down the near side boards, cut to the right wing circle and fired a shot off Olli Kalkaja. Kalkaja looked to have made the initial save, but it managed to sneak past him for the one goal lead at 12:17.
Rio Grande almost tied it up early in the second on the power play. Jett Salinas had made a save on a shot from his left leaving the goal mouth wide open. The Killer Bees had a shooter open just outside the paint, but Johan Steen laid out to block the shot and preserve the Brahmas’ lead. Lone Star added to their lead at the 9:53 mark off a blast from the point. Liam Stirtzinger got the play started as he fed the puck to Austin Thielges at the far point. Thielges went D to D for a onetimer from Nick Blasé that found the back of the net.
Rio Grande was awarded another power play at 16:10 of the second. The Brahmas worked hard to kill off the man advantage, but just three seconds after the penalty expired Rio scored on almost a mirror image of the Blasé goal. Brenden Dunning accepted a pass from Dylan Abood and slid it along the blue line to Sean Mostrom for a wrister behind a screened Salinas.
With right at one minute left in the period Steen knifed down the puck at the blue line in front of the Brahmas bench and was about to send it deeper into the zone when Aleksi Luthalampi slew footed him sending Steen crashing to the ice. Although Steen was down for over three minutes and Dan Wildfong protested loudly, there was no call on the play.
The Killer Bees pulled even in the third period when Ben Greiner controlled a bouncing puck and getting loose behind the defense. Greiner tried to pick the top corner from point blank range, but Salinas was there with the glove hand to rob him. Unfortunately, Salinas was not able to hold onto the puck as it rolled out of his catcher and bounced behind him for the score. Time of the goal was 5:09.
Sebastian Vidmar had an opportunity to put the game away late in the third as he drove the net from the top of the left wing circle. Vidmar forced Kalkaja to bite and had him down and out, but moving through traffic the puck rolled off his blade as he went across the crease. Neither team was able to get on the board again through regulation or the overtime period sending the game to a shootout.
Mostrom scored for Rio Grande in the second round to put them up by one. The Brahmas’ hopes came down to Stirtzinger as the fifth shooter and he was able to deke Kalkaja then put the puck over his blocker to keep Lone Star hopes alive. However, in the sixth round Rob Marsanico put a shot back against the grain stick side on Salinas to take the win.
Officially shots on goal were 30 – 17 in favor of Rio Grande. Neither team took advantage on the power play with Lone Star going 0 – 1 and Rio Grande going 0 – 4.
Elsewhere Around the NAHL South
Corpus Christi at Amarillo
Amarillo had two goals in each period to score six for the third game in a row and take a 6 – 2 win over the Icerays. The contest saw 18 Roughing Minors called to go along with 6 Fighting Majors. All in all there were 138 penalty minutes handed out on the night. Paul Berrafato made 29 saves for the win.
Wichita Falls at Topeka
The Road Runners sandwiched a pair of goals around a Wildcats tally for a 2 – 1 win and a sweep of visiting Wichita Falls. PJ Bridges turned aside 24 of the 25 shots he faced for the win.
Current NAHL South Standings
Following play last weekend the Wichita Falls Wildcats were setting atop the division at 45 points with Amarillo in second at 44 and a game in hand over the Wildcats. Topeka and Rio Grande rounded out the top four with 41 points apiece. With Amarillo winning three in a row and Topeka sweeping Wichita Falls, the standings at the top of the division were reshuffled.
| TEAM | GP |
W
L
OTL
PTS
PCT
Amarillo
36
24
10
2
50
0.694
Topeka
36
21
11
4
46
0.639
Wichita Falls
36
21
12
3
45
0.625
Rio Grande
36
19
10
7
45
0.625
Corpus Christi
37
13
18
6
32
0.432
Lone Star
36
11
22
3
25
0.347
Odessa
35
10
24
1
21
0.300