A note from Brahmas broadcaster, Chad Siewert (it’s kind of a long note, Chad has published like 10 books so…).
Last season ended in disappointment for everyone in Brahma Land. Another season where we had a talented team that could not seal the deal and win the South. Our top scorer was rookie Ryan Comishock who had just north of 30 points on the season. We had two uber talented goaltenders in William Gramme (Wisconsin Badgers) and Arthur Smith (Princeton Tigers) but could not produce the goals we needed to take the division title. We felt like we needed to address a couple issues, size, and scoring. So, our scouts and coaches were tasked with finding those two ingredients along with the incredible task of finding a goalie tandem to fill the void left by Gramme and Smith.
We added an extra pre-draft camp on Long Island to go along with our Chicago camp. I have worked with Dan Wildfong for almost two decades now and can safely say I have never seen him work as hard as he did last summer. We finished a round of golf at Willow Springs Country Club in Mt. Sinai New York and Dan raced to find somewhere in the clubhouse where he could hold a zoom call with a prospective player. Just as he was shifting into high gear to build a team, we learned that associate head coach Ryan Anderson had been hired by Amarillo. Dan would have to find a replacement at a time when he was scrambling to get players to come to main camp.
Dan found Logan Murphy, and said that this was his guy, this was our guy. So, we hired coach Murphy and trusted Dan’s gut. Coach Murphy aka “Murph,” quickly fit in. We also added coach Chad Bailey for our 3HL team and goaltender coach/NA3HL assistant Brooks DiMarino to the staff. We held our team orientation meeting at Gritr Sports and Outdoors. Dan, Murph, and Frank all spoke to the team. The message was sent, we are playing for a championship, period. We had former Green Beret soldier Eric Neal speak to the team as well. His message was trusting your brothers, be willing to do whatever it takes to help them and complete your mission.
The regular season would prove whether we had found the pieces we needed to complete the mission. We quickly learned that we had a talented team. Goaltender Deivs Rolovs was locked in from the start. Like Mana from heaven, we found goaltender Jack Wieneke. We won the lottery with the acquisition of Brock James from the USHL. We picked up NAHL veteran Max Hamstad, we found Zack Rizzo, we snagged Vladimir Saibel right before the roster freeze, and Captain Ray Murakami recovered from an injury that we all thought would be season ending. The entire season we heard the noise, “you’ve played more games than everyone else, “ or “you’ve played bad teams like Corpus and Odessa 100 times.”
We tuned the noise out and handled business night in and night out. Our team was deeper than the Atlantic Ocean, and tighter than the trefoil knot (look it up or tap here later). 94 points in the regular season, 10 more than the Shreveport Mudbugs. We had a crazy long bye week at the end of the season that last something like 19 days. The boys worked hard, and the coaches worked harder. The playoffs would be our chance to show the world that this season was no fluke. New Mexico was our first opponent. After sweeping them at home we dropped game three in Albuquerque in double OT. While New Mexico had no choice but to roll goaltender Andy Vlaha in game four, we chose to roll with a rested Latvian named Deivs Rolovs. Rolovs blanked the Wolves and our ticket to the South finals was punched.
Facing off against our bitter rivals in the finals, the Shreveport Mudbugs would prove to be a tough cookie to crack. Games one and two were as tight as we have ever seen. A series split and a road trip to Louisiana was in store for games 3 and 4. Shreveport could not match the grit and moxie of Lone Star as we won game three 4-1 and game four 4-0. Our ticket to Blaine was punched.
Once on the ground in Blaine we prepared for battle against a very talented Anchorage Wolverines team. Game one started and the Brahmas immediately made a statement. 4-0 after one period, 6-0 after two, and a final score of 8-2 had everyone in Blaine taking notice of this Brahmas squad.
Game two would be tight. Anchorage came out ready to play, but the thing is, so did we. 2-0 Brahmas win and our ticket to the National Championship game was officially punched.
Now we sit here anxiously awaiting the Robertson Cup final game, which, is set for Tuesday May 21st at 7 pm. There will be an official watching party inside Zuroma. We need all of Brahma Land locked in and watching. I have enjoyed calling the action on NAHLTV all season and am looking forward to this championship game. To the fans, billets, sponsors, families, players, staff, and haters who troll us online, it has been a ton of fun this year. We have one game left, Tuesday Night it’s all on the line. Let’s Go Brahmas!
