Lone Star Brahmas Roll Over Odessa 4 – 0 To Complete Sweep
By Kirk Estes
Despite picking up a win to open their series in Odessa Friday night, the Lone Star Brahmas were not happy with the fact that it took a shootout to get the second point. So, Saturday night they came out on fire taking the game directly at the home Odessa Jackalopes.
Sebastian Vidmar got things kicked-off just 45 seconds into the contest. Caleb Thompson got the play started sending the puck from deep in the Brahmas defensive zone to Ludvig Larsson in the neutral zone along the far wall. Larsson slid it across to Vidmar in the middle, he carried across the blueline and blasted it over Tanner Creel’s left shoulder on the first shot of the game. Exactly one minute later they went up two when Hayden Hanson fed it to Cody Wickline coming into the zone. Wickline carried it behind the net, out the near side and slid it out front to Roman Uchyn slashing through the defense. Uchyn’s first shot was off Creel’s pillows, but he stayed with the play and put the rebound past the right skate. At 2:57, following an icing call on the Jackalopes, the teams set up for a faceoff to Creel’s right. Quinn Carroll won it cleanly back to Pat Egan who wasted little time ripping one on net. Again Creel made the initial save, but this time Storm Wahlrab was just off the left post to put the rebound through Creel chasing him from the net and bringing in Robin Johansson. Lone Star had three more scoring chances before the ten minute mark with Vidmar and then Alexey Solovyev twice ringing shots off the iron. With Odessa on the power play at 11:15 Anton Santesson corralled the puck in the corner and under pressure gave it to Hanson below the goal line. Hanson’s clear was picked cleanly by Andrew McLean at the near hash mark. He fired a shot on net, but TJ Black had the answer making a huge save with the body.
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At around the 16:30 mark of the second Peter Kessel split the defense of Andreas Soje and Daniel Kiraly going in on a lone man rush. Kessel had Johansson beat, but once again the goalies best friend bailed the Jackalopes out with the puck going off the crossbar. It didn’t take long for Kessel to get another opportunity this time on the power play. With Kessel stationed at the top of the leftwing circle, Wickline slid the puck from the near halfwall to Egan along the endboards. Egan immediately went back to Kessel for a wrister into the twine.
Going into the third riding a four goal lead, Lone Star set back on their lead and protected the defensive zone and picked up the win and sweep. The Brahmas outshot the Jackalopes 36 – 26 as Black picked up his third shutout of the season. Lone Star was 1 – 5 on the power play while holding Odessa scoreless on five opportunities.
Elsewhere Around The NAHL South Div.
Wichita Falls – Topeka
In a reversal of last night’s game, the Wildcats won an overtime contest in Topeka. Colin Staub scored an unassisted goal to start the scoring in the first. After going into the second tied at one the Wildcats got the middle frame’s only goal from Kevin Charyszyn on the power play. Topeka tied it up in the third sending the game to overtime. Just over one minute into the extra period Jake Townsend potted the game winner. Austin Shaw made 36 saves for the win.
Corpus Christi – Rio Grande
The Icerays’ Taner Lomsnes put them up one in the first, but Rio Grande came back to knot it at one. After the Killer Bees scored two in the second Wes Michaud sandwiched a pair of goals around another Lomsnes tally in the last three minutes of the period. Travis Howe added a third period goal before Michaud completed the hat trick. Andrew Lindgren made 15 saves for the win.
Amarillo – Wenatchee
The Wild picked up first period goals from Jake Ahlgren and David Powlowski. Dakota Raabe found the net in the second and Tyler Rockwell came through in the third as Wenatchee downed Amarillo 4 – 2. Michael Bullion recorded the victory making 20 saves.
Current NAHL South Div. Standings
| TEAM | GP | W | L | OTL | PTS | PCT |
| xTopeka | 51 | 35 | 11 | 5 | 75 | 0.735 |
| xLone Star | 51 | 33 | 11 | 7 | 73 | 0.716 |
| xWichita Falls | 48 | 33 | 13 | 2 | 68 | 0.708 |
| Corpus Christi | 49 | 27 | 17 | 5 | 59 | 0.602 |
| Wenatchee | 50 | 23 | 20 | 7 | 53 | 0.530 |
| Rio Grande | 50 | 21 | 21 | 8 | 50 | 0.500 |
| Amarillo | 49 | 19 | 26 | 4 | 42 | 0.429 |
| Odessa | 50 | 9 | 34 | 7 | 25 | 0.250 |
x – Clinched Playoff Berth
Lone Star’s sweep of Odessa combined with the Topeka – Wichita Falls split has the Brahmas within two points of the Roadrunners and five points ahead of the Wildcats in the race for the NAHL South Title.