The puck dropped at the NYTEX Sports Centre on Saturday night with the Lone Star Brahmas riding a six game win streak and looking to continue their perfect record on home ice. Game one of the series with the visiting Rio Grande Killer Bees saw the home team get off to a sluggish start, but they came to life when Rio Grande jumped out to a one goal lead early in the third period. From that point on the Brahmas controlled play and stormed back for a hard fought 2 – 1 win.
It looked as though the Brahmas were going to continue their momentum from late the night before into Saturday’s game. At 5:22 of the first the Brahmas had the offense set up in the zone and Pat Egan slid it behind the net to Sebastian Vidmar in the near corner. Vidmar gave it to Alexey Solovyev at the point for a cannon into the twine, but Referee Steven Rouillard waived it off claiming there was a player in the crease. Then with 1:53 to go in the opening frame the Brahmas went into the zone on a 3 on 1 in which Vidmar drove down the near side slid the puck across to Egan and he burried it just as Rio Grande defenseman Rob Click slid into Nick Schmit knocking the net off the moorings. Rouillard once again waived off the goal allowing the Killer Bees to escape the period with the scored knotted at zero. They would not be so fortunate in the second.
With 5:40 gone in the second the Brahmas finally got one that the referee could not take away from them. This time the goal came off the stick off Ludvig Larsson afterAnton Santesson had stole the puck in neutral ice. Santesson slid it across to Larsson who went steaming into the zone looked off the defenseman Wayland Williams then blasted it past Schmit’s glove hand. Solovyev added a shorty to the scoring on a romp down the middle. He weaved his way around one defender, split two more and put it five hole on the backhand. Time of the goal was 7:28.
Rio Grande got on the board at 9:39 on a deflection of a deflection in front by Dallas Gerad of a Parker Wood shot from the point. Kyle Stephan scored just 10 seconds later from Anthony Croston when he went back across the grain on Jake Kupsky to tie the score at two.
Lone Star reestablished the lead with just under five minutes gone in the third. Vidmar skated the puck down the near side cut across to the far hash and ripped it off of Schmit. Eric Carreras followed the play and put the rebound top shelf for what turned out to be the game winner.
The Brahmas controlled play all night long with the exception of the brief period in the second when Rio Grande came up with their two goals. Lone Star won the shots on goal battle 35 – 15. Neither team was able to score on the power play with Rio Grande 0 – 2 and Lone Star 0 – 1. However, the Brahmas did have the short handed goal in the second.
Lone Star has now won 7 in a row and 9 of their last 10. The 7 game win streak is the longest active streak in the league. The Brahmas have yet to lose on the NYTEX Sports Centre ice this season. They will look to extend the streak next weekend against the visiting Amarillo Bulls who were the last team to defeat the Brahmas. With the sweep of Rio Grande coupled with Wichita Falls and Corpus Christi being idle the Brahmas have moved into second place in the South Division. They have picked up seven points on the division leading Topeka Roadrunners over the past two weekends. Lone Star still trails Topeka by 7 points, but the Brahmas have 5 games in hand.
