The Lone Star Brahmas entered the Amarillo Civic Center looking to rebound from a one goal loss to the Bulls like they had against the Wichita Falls Wildcats a few weeks before.
In the first period the Brahmas went on a power play thanks to a Roberts Smitsboarding penalty at the 5:37 mark. It took the Brahmas just 25 seconds to cash in with the man advantage. Ludvig Larsson sent Eric Carreras streaking down the far boards before giving it up to Oskar Andren at the top of the right wing circle. Carerras then went to the front for the return pass and put the puck off of Anton Martinsson then followed his own rebound to put it in the back of the net.
At 6:31 of the period, Liam Stirtzinger was whistled for a kneeing major and game ejection on a hit in neutral ice. On the ensuing five minute penalty kill the Brahmas special teams came up huge not allowing a single shot to reach Jake Kupsky in goal while getting two on Martinsson at the other end. Lone Star went back on the power play with just 21 seconds left in the opening period but could not pick up a goal before the horn sounded leaving a 1:39 carryover to open the second.
Amarillo’s penalty kill let them down once again as they were unable to kill off the carry over penalty and Sebastian Vidmar scored just 30 seconds in. Vidmar put a shot on goal from the near faceoff dot that Martinsson put behind the net where it was controlled by Pat Egan. Egan immediately sent it back out front to Vidmar for a wrister between the arm and body of the Bulls’ netminder. Roman Uchyn picked up the secondary assist.
The Bulls eventually got on the board at the 10:09 mark on a power play goal of their own when Cody Gylling fired one from the point through traffic and behind Kupsky who was screened on the play. Rusian Rakhmatov and Kasper Emanuelsson register the assists. Just 1:25 later the Bulls got the equalizer at even strength off a 3 on 1 break. Connor Wood drove the net with Kupsky making a big save, but Elijah Barrigaput home the rebound before Kupsky could recover.
With momentum swinging back to the home team, the Bulls got a little sloppy in their own end and AJ Vanderbeck made them pay. Vanderbeck picked up a loose puck along the far goal line, circled out front and put if five hole on Martinsson unassisted. Time of the goal was 13:11. With 3:12 left in the period the Brahmas would tally another power play goal as Andren and Caleb Thompson worked the give an go perfectly on the far side with Andren sending a laser into the back of the net restoring the two goal lead. Larsson had the secondary assist on his countryman’s goal.