Lone Star Brahmas Pull One Point Out Of Overtime Loss

The Lone Star Brahmas opened a weekend set against the Wildcats in Wichita Falls on Friday looking to get back into the win column and made it half way there.

New comer Oskar Andren almost grabbed his first NAHL point early as he picked the pocket of Jake Townsend at the point and went knifing into the offensive zone with Eric Carreras. Andren slid the puck across the crease to Carreras, but his shot was just wide of the left post. At the 17:30 mark the Brahmas controlled a defensive zone face off and Pat Eagan took it up the far side leaving it for Roman Uchyn just inside the line. Uchyn carried the puck low in the zone and then put it on the tape of Sebastian Vidmar in the left wing circle for a blast over the right pad of Austin Shaw.

Coming out of the first intermission, the Brahmas came within an eyelash of going up two on the power play off an Anton Santesson laser. Unfortunately, Santesson’s shot from the point rang off the post.

Wichita Falls pulled even with 7:40 gone in the period on a scramble along the end boards. Austin Beaulieu pulled it out the near side and slipped it five hole on Jake Kupsky from point blank. Tommy Apap and Collin Staub got the assists on the play.

Things began to sour for the Brahmas late in the second when defenseman Sean Giles was hit with a game misconduct for removing an opponent’s helmet as he was trying to pull a player off of Kupsky after the whistle. Even though Lone Star avoided going on the penalty kill it was the first step toward their eventual demise. Kupsky came up with a huge save on Shane Kuzmeski from the top of the crease with just 45 seconds to go to keep the game even.

The third period started poorly for Lone Star when Caleb Thompson was whistled for a questionable checking from behind major and game misconduct at the far point in the offensive zone. The penalty at just 55 seconds into the period led to the Brahmas being down to four defensemen the rest of the way and facing a five minute penalty kill. Kupsky and the Brahmas’ depleted defense faced a barrage from the Wildcats over the next five minutes. Wichita Falls pumped 10 shots on goal but were unable to break the Lone Star defense.

Just 11 seconds after Lone Star had survived the major penalty kill, Nick Farmer gave the gassed Brahmas a gift with a slashing minor. It took Hayden Hanson only 16 seconds to capitalize on the power play opportunity. Vidmar won the draw that came to Shaw’s right, Uchyn quickly sent it back to Hanson at the blueline for a rocket past a Vidmar screen and into the back of the net.

Before the thoughts of momentum swinging to the Brahmas could set in, Erich Jaeger put a shot on goal through heavy traffic that would elude Kupsky knotting the score once again at 6:51. Assists went to Beaulieu and Staub. Wichita Falls kept the pressure on trying to take advantage of the Brahmas short bench. With just minutes to go in regulation Hanson found himself defending a 3 on 1 Wildcats rush. The Brahmas’ defenseman gave up the body laying out in front of the crease to cut off the passing lane to deny the scoring opportunity and send the game to overtime.

The Brahmas finally succumbed to the extra shifts by the defense just over two minutes into the extra frame. Farmer carried the puck down the far side using is speed to get past the defense before he cut across the goal mouth and tucked it past Kupsky’s left skate.

With the five minute man advantage, Wichita Falls won a lopsided shots on goal battle 38 – 17. However the Brahmas were the only ones to cash in on the power play going 1 – 5 while the Wildcats were 0 – 6. The same two teams will be back on the Kay Yeager Coliseum ice at 7:05 on Saturday.

Boxscore

Elsewhere Around the NAHL South

Wenatchee – Corpus Christi

The Icerays played host to Wenatchee and built a three goal lead through two periods then held off a Wild comeback attempt to claim a 3 – 2 win. Anthony Cortese and Logan Gestro each had 1G – 1A to lead the Icerays offense while Andrew Lindgren made 29 saves for the win.