Lone Star Brahmas Snap Losing Streak With 2 – 1 Overtime Win

The Lone Star Brahmas opened their season series with the Rio Grande Killer Bees running off five straight wins. That was before this weekend when the Brahmas dropped the first two games of a three game series via consecutive shootout losses. They came into Saturday night’s game looking to get things turned around.

Oskar Andren just missed putting the Brahmas up one late in the opening period when he blew past the Rio Grande defense to chase down the puck, but his shot rang off the far post. The Andren opportunity went down as the best chance by either team in the period.

Rio Grande got on the board first as Trevor Abbot just managed to keep the puck in the zone and turned toward the slot. Johan Steen stood him up dislodging the puck, but Connor Wood onetimed the loose puck just under the cross bar for his first goal of the season at 1:45 of the second.

At 17:20 of the second, Sebastian Vidmar had an excellent scoring opportunity on a shorthanded breakaway. Vidmar split the defense and went flying into the zone, but could not get the bouncing puck to settle. As a result he couldn’t get much on the shot allowing Nick Schmit to make a blocker save. With about a minute left in the period Andren took a nasty high stick from Dallas Gerads that left Andren lying in the Killer Bees defensive zone while the play went to the other end. Unfortunately, referee Tim Ferrel missed the blow so no penalty was called. Mason Van Tuyl eventually put Lone Star on the power play with a cross checking call at the 19:56 mark meaning one of the top units in the league would have a chance with clean ice to open the third.

On the opening faceoff of the third, Hunter Stanley pushed the puck forward then chased it down in the zone before dropping it for AJ Vanderbeck in the left wing circle. Vanderbeck alertly saucered a cross ice pass to Vidmar driving down the near side and he sniped it into the far corner just six seconds into the frame. With just under two minutes to go in regulation and the Brahmas on the attack, Dean Balsamo tripped Andren just off the near post. With Andren on his knees the referee’s arm went up with everyone thinking Lone Star was going on the power play. The only problem was, Ferrel looked straight at Andren getting up off the ice and motioned him to the box for tripping. Despite the unexplainable call, the Brahmas penalty kill held tight and the rest of the period remained scoreless sending the teams to the third extra period in three games.

In the overtime period it took the Brahmas only 1:09 to grab the victory. The Killer Bees Jack Weiss was trying to bring the puck out of the defensive zone when he sent a pass from the far point to Daniel Nilsson in the middle. Vanderbeck read the play all the way, stepping in front of Nilsson picking it cleanly and went speeding in on Schmit deking him once and putting it past the right pad for the game winner.

Officially the Killer Bees outshot the Brahmas 28 – 18. TJ Black was big in net all evening long for the Brahmas with exceptional rebound control to limit close in chances. Lone Star picked up the only power play goal of the night going 1 – 5 despite what is shown in the boxscore and held Rio Grande to 0 – 3.

Boxscore

Elsewhere Around The NAHL South Division

Corpus Christi – Amarillo

The Bulls got a hat trick from Charlie Combs scoring two power play goals and a shorty to go along with tallies from Luke Novak and Will Harrison on their way to a 5 – 2 win. Anton Martinsson allowed two goals on 40 shots in a game that saw 130 penalty minutes handed out.

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Odessa – Wichita Falls

Wichita Falls jumped out to a 5 goal lead through the first 32 minutes then cruised to a 5 – 2 win. Austin Azzinnaro, Alex Falconer, Tommy Apap, Jake Townsend and Max Reisinger were responsible for the scoring while David Zevnik made 21 saves for the victory. Former Brahma forward Eric Carreras had one of the two Odessa goals.

Topeka – Wenatchee

The Wild had goals from Brendan Harris and Mike Coyne in the first half of the opening period only to see Topeka score three times in the latter half. Ryan Chiasson pulled Wenatchee even midway through the second with the game eventually going to a shootout. Zach Quinn got the start for Wenatchee allowing two goals on 10 shots faced before giving way to Michael Bullion. Bullion made 27 saves the rest of the way then was perfect in the shootout. Kyle Stephan scored for the Wild as their third shooter for the only goal of the shootout. With the one point for the overtime loss, the Roadrunners became the first team in the division to clinch a playoff berth.

Current NAHL South Division Standings

x – Clinched Playoff Berth