Lone Star Brahmas – Rio Grande Killer Bees Preview For Nov 14
By Kirk Estes
The Lone Star Brahmas will faceoff against the Rio Grande Valley Killer Bees for the first time this season on Friday and Saturday at the NYTEX Sports Centre. The Brahmas are in the midst of a nine game home stand and are riding a five game win streak.
Last weekend the Brahmas added to their win streak by sweeping the Topeka Roadrunners who came into North Texas as the number one team in the NAHL. Topeka had won five in a row and nine of ten coming into the series. On Friday night the Brahmas rolled over the Roadrunners 5 – 1 on goals by Hogan Davidson, Hunter Stanley, Alexey Solovyev and a pair of scores by Pat Egan in front of a 22 save performance by TJ Black. Saturday night saw the Brahmas come away with another win in which again they held the league’s highest scoring offense to a single goal. Jake Kupsky got the 3 – 1 win with 23 saves while the offense was provided by Liam Stirtzinger, Oskar Andren and Sebastian Vidmar.
Rio Grande split a two game series in Wenatchee last weekend and will play a single game in Corpus Christi before heading to the NYTEX Sports Centre for their series against Lone Star. Game on in Wenatchee saw the Killer Bees take a 5 – 3 win with four unanswered goals after falling behind 3 – 1. Rio Grande goal scorers were JB Baker, Parker Wood and Kyle Stephan with Wood and Stephan scoring two each. Ben Johansson faced 27 shot in the winning effort. In game two both teams scored twice in the first period then went scoreless through the overtime period. Stephan and Chris Deprez had the Killer Bee’s goals. Rio Grande failed to score with four shooters in the shootout and Wenatchee took the 3 – 2 win. Johansson made 22 saves through overtime but allowed two goals on three shots in the shootout to be saddled with the loss.
* The comparison below is does not include Rio Grande’s Wednesday game against Corpus Christi.
| Last 5 Games | W | L | OTL | Pts |
| Brahmas | 5 | 0 | 0 | 10 |
| Killer Bees | 2 | 1 | 2 | 6 |
Special Teams
Overall the Brahmas special teams are well ahead of Rio Grande’s. Lone Star is 9th in the league on the power play and 10th on the penalty kill while the Killer Bees are 17th and 24th.
Lone Star’s home power play is at 16.3% of 13th in the league converting 7 of 43 opportunities. They will be up against a Rio Grande road penalty kill which is 17th in the league allowing 6 goals on 34 penalty kills for 81.8%.
The Brahmas home penalty kill is one of the best in the league allowing 5 goals on 41 opponent power plays to rank fourth in the league at 87.8%. The Killer Bees road power play will come in at 16th in the league at 16.7% converting 6 of 36 opportunities.
Goaltending Comparison Last 5 Games
| GP | W | L | OTL | SO | GA | GAA | SV | SV% | |
| Brahmas | 5 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 9 | 1.80 | 104 | .920 |
| Killer Bees | 5 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 18 | 3.60 | 117 | .867 |
Who is Hot (Last 5 Games)
| Brahmas | G | A | Pts |
| Sebastian Vidmar | 6 | 3 | 9 |
| Ludvig Larsson | 2 | 7 | 9 |
| Pat Egan | 2 | 4 | 6 |
| Oskar Andren | 1 | 5 | 6 |
| Eric Carreras | 3 | 1 | 4 |
| Killer Bees | G | A | Pts |
| Parker Wood | 2 | 4 | 6 |
| Kyle Stephan | 3 | 1 | 4 |
| JB Baker | 2 | 1 | 3 |
| Andrew Green | 1 | 2 | 3 |
| Two Tied at | 2 | 0 | 2 |
Inside the Game
Lone Star currently has the third highest winning percentage in the league at .700 behind only Topeka and Wichita Falls.
The Brahmas are 8 – 1 – 1 in their last ten games, the Killer Bees are 4 – 2 – 4.
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The Brahmas are seventh in the league in average attendance at 1,869 per game. The number has been climbing consistently as the team continues to win.
Sebastian Vidmar is seventh in the league in scoring with 21 points. His 14 goals and 5 game winning goals are tops in the league in those categories.
Parker Wood leads Rio Grande’s offense with 14 points and in goals with 6.
Rio Grande’s Connor Wood leads the league in PIMs with 79 in 15 games played.
The goal tending tandem of TJ Black and Jake Kupsky are arguably the best in the NAHL with a combined 2.20 GAA tied for 1st in the league and a .914 SV% tied for 4th in the league. Rio Grande as a team has a 3.88 GAA which is 21st in the league and a .873 SV% which is 22nd in the league.
Ludvig Larsson is riding a 7 game point streak which is the longest active streak in the league.
Caleb Thompson leads the Brahmas in +/- rating with a +12 and is tied for 7th in the league.
Lone Star has been whistled for 87 minor penalties in 15 games, Rio Grande has been hit with 92 minors in 16 games played.
The Brahmas have been a team that closes well this season outscoring their opponents 20 – 9 in the third. They have a +8 goal differential in the first period and a +1 differential in the second. The third has also been the Killer Bees’ best period where they are+10 outscoring opponents 27 – 17. They have struggled in the other two periods with a first period differential of -7 and a -13 in the second.
Lone Star is tops in the league in goals against with 2.20 per game while Rio Grande is 21st allowing 3.88 per game.