Lone Star Brahmas Down Wichita Falls Wildcats 4 – 3 In A Shootout

Wednesday night saw the Lone Star Brahmas skating against the Wichita Falls Wildcats at the Kay Yeager Coliseum. The midweek game in Wichita Falls pitted the second and third place teams in the NAHL South.

The Wildcats got on the board first at 9:45 of the opening period after a faceoff in their defensive end. The puck was punched deep into the Lone Star zone and Austin Beaulieu beat both Caleb Thompson and Sean Giles to the puck below the goal line. He sent a blind centering pass out front that Colin Staub put top shelf over Jake Kupsky.

Early in the second the Wildcats killed off the carryover of a Nikita Litviak tripping penalty when they got the puck to Litviak coming out of the box. Litviak and Nick Farmer went roaring into the zone all alone. Litviak pushed the puck across to Farmer on the far side, but Kupsky made a huge play poke checking the puck into the corner. Then at 9:13, Johan Steen played the puck around from behind Kupsky’s net when Austin Albrecht took a run at him from about 10 feet away and launched himself at Steen’s head. Steen’s defensive partner Alexey Solovyev went after Albrecht driving him into the boards. Albrecht got a five minute major and the gate while Solovyev picked up a roughing minor. As a result the teams skated four on four for two minutes then the Brahmas went on a three minute power play.

Lone Star was buzzing in the zone when Cody Wickline made a strong play to carry the puck into the zone where it found its way to Anton Santesson at the blueline. Santesson fed it to Liam Stirtzinger at the near halfwall and he walked it to the leftwing faceoff dot then ripped it into the twine at 14:00 of the second.

The teams came out of the second intermission deadlocked at one apiece. Solovyev put the Brahmas up two at 3:53 of the third. Hogan Davidson got the play started digging the puck off the endboards and sending it off the far wall to Solovyev at the point. Solovyev faked a shot to clear Farmer then let go of a bomb that found its way through traffic and into the back of the net. Lone Star picked up their second power play goal at 9:55 on a faceoff to David Zevnik’s left. Ludvig Larsson pulled it back cleanly to Sebastian Vidmar who put a cross ice pass into Santesson’s skates. Santesson kicked it to his tape and put it through Zevnik five hole.

Just over one minute later the Wildcats got it back. Jake Townsend sent the puck toward net from the blueline, but the shot went off Litviak in front. Litviak knocked it down spun an fired it over Kupsky stick side. Austin Azzinnaro picked up the secondary assist. With just 1:07 left to go Vidmar gave the puck to Litviak just outside the Brahmas’ defensive zone which resulted in Colin Staub taking a shot from the point that Kupsky made the initial save on, but Cam Knight was there to poke the rebound across the line.

With just 17 seconds left in overtime the Brahmas went on the power play and on the ensuing faceoff to Zevnik’s right Wickline won it back to Thompson who skated it to the high slot and blasted it past Zevnik, but off the right post and back into the Brahmas’ end of the ice.

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Stirtzinger was first up for the Brahmas in the shootout and Lone Star fans knew what was coming. Stirtzinger skated it right down the middle, waved his stick over the puck and put a backhander five hole for the early lead.

After Kupsky stoned Alex Falconer at the far post, Santesson stepped on the ice with a chance to give Lone Star a commanding lead. He skated it to the right and faked Zevnik out of his skates with what he thought was a big slapshot then flipped it over the prone netminder.

Kupsky stopped all four Wildcats shooters to give the Brahmas their first shootout win of the season and hand Wichita Falls their first overtime or shootout loss of the season. With the win the Brahmas picked up the critical extra point and now lead the Wildcats by four, but Wichita Falls has three games in hand. Wichita Falls outshot Lone Star 34 – 30 on the night the difference maker was the Brahmas’ special teams. They were 2 – 3 on the power play while blanking the league leading power play on two opportunities.

Boxscore

Elsewhere Around The NAHL South

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Current NAHL South Division Standings