Lone Star Brahmas Win Streak Snapped At Ten Games

The Lone Star Brahmas 10 game win streak came to a halt tonight at the hands of the Topeka Roadrunners. With the win the Roadrunners exacted a measure of revenge for the Brahmas snapping their five game win streak in their last meeting.

Things got off to a quick start for the Brahmas just 1:40 into the contest. The play developed in the Lone Star defensive zone when Sam Rennaker lowered a shoulder and ran Jake Kupsky. With a delayed penalty coming, Eric Carreras took the puck the other way before Oskar Andren took over at the Topeka blueline. Andren carried it to the middle and dropped it for Alexey Solovyev who pounded it past Matej Tomek.

Topeka answered the Solovyev goal at 4:09 on a wrister from the near hash mark by Cam Strong off the blocker and over Kupsky’s right shoulder. Rennaker and Willie Brown were credited with the assists. With just over 12 minutes to go in the period, Kupsky faced three close in shots as the Roadrunners had the pressure on, but he turned them all aside to preserve the tie.

Strong picked up his second of the night with just seconds left on the power play when he punched home a rebound of a Daniel Rzavsky shot that came from the near circle. Daniel Brickley was credited with the secondary assist. Time of the goal was 10:05. With time winding down in the period, Topeka carried the play from deep in their own end into the Brahmas’ defensive zone where Carlos Fornaris left it for Ryan Polin who put a wrister through traffic and past a screened Kupsky. The goal sent the teams to the second intermission with the Brahmas trailing by two.

With 4:00 to go in regulation the Brahmas went on the power play due to a cross checking call on Topeka Captain Mike Gornall. On the ensuing faceoff, Ludvig Larsson pulled it back to Sebastian Vidmar and he skated it to the high slot, spun and fired it on net. Tomek made the save , but Roman Uchyn jumped on the rebound to put it over the right pad. With just over two minutes to go and the Brahmas skating with an extra attacker, Larsson was charging the puck up the far boards when he was hooked down from behind with no call. The lack of a whistle resulted in Topeka controlling the loose puck. Gornall gave it to Tyler Irvine who skated it across the redline and flipped it just under the crossbar and into the empty net putting the game out of reach.

Topeka won the shots on goal battle as well 28 – 20. Both teams netted one power play goal with the being 1 – 7 and Topeka 1 – 3. The loss was the first for Kupsky in his last seven decisions.

Boxscore

Elsewhere Around Then NAHL South Division

Wichita Falls – Odessa

The Brahmas got an assist from the Odessa Jackalopes as they downed the visiting Wildcats 4 – 2. Derek Brown had a power play goal and Hampus Sjodal had a shorty for Odessa in the first. They held a one goal lead going into the third when Sjodal scored even strength early and Kenny Hausinger had an empty netter to seal the deal. Robin Johansson made 28 saves in the win.

Corpus Christi – Rio Grande

The Killer Bees won a defensive struggle on an Evan Bell goal at 12:36 of the first for the only scoring of the game. Ben Johansson was in net for Rio Grande stopping all 19 shots he faced for the shutout win.

Kenai River – Wenatchee

Wenatchee pulled one point out of a 3 – 2 shootout loss to the Brown Bears after spotting Kenai River to a two goal first period lead. Colin Burston and David Powlowski had the goals for Wenatchee with Powlowski’s coming with just 10 seconds to play to get the game to overtime and a shootout. Michael Bullion took the loss in net for the Wild with 28 saves.

Current NAHL South Division Standings