AMARILLO, TX – The Lone Star Brahmas defeated the Amarillo Bulls 4-2 on Friday night to reclaim the top spot in the South Division. The Brahmas have won six of their first nine games this season.
After a back-and-forth start to the game, the Brahmas found some momentum when Drake Glover scored his seventh goal of the season. Austin Kamer turned on the jets up the left wing board and noticed Glover and Peter Kessel skating stride for stride with him up the middle. Kamer threw a hard shot on goal that garnered a big rebound for Glover, who buried it in the back of the net for a 1-0 lead just under nine minutes into the first period.
With a one goal lead heading into the intermission, Lone Star came out charging in the second period. With time still remaining on the power play that rolled over from period one, Peter Kessel wasted no time increasing the lead to two. After the Bulls cleared the puck, Alec Calvaruso sent it to neutral ice where John Zimmerman bumped it forward to Peter Kessel and then Kessel put on a show. Skating through two defenders, the three year Brahma caught Nikita Babintsev off his post and smoked the puck from the hash marks over Babintsev’s left shoulder to make it 2-0 Brahmas 55 seconds into the period.
Thirty two seconds later, on a delayed penalty call, Simon Loof skated with the puck to the Amarillo blue line. He found a wide open Troy York cutting through the slot and drove a low hard pass to York, who redirected the puck in the crease to give the Brahmas a commanding 3-0 lead and that proved to be all the Brahmas needed.
Amarillo kept it interesting with a Brendon Michaelian goal from the point, but the Brahmas charged back with a Hunter Stanley deflection on the power play with 3:15 to play in the second.
Kosta Likourezos would score a 5-on-3 power play goal to pull the game back to a two goal differential before the end of the second period, but that was all the offense from Friday night’s game.
Alec Calvaruso secured his third win of the season, stopping 24 shots and special teams was undoubtedly the difference in game one of three this weekend. The Brahmas scored three power play goals, finishing 3-for-6 on the night. Loof, Kessel, and Stanley each had two points in the contest.
Saturday night’s game will start at 7:05 p.m. from the Civic Center and the game will be aired on FastHockey.com. We encourage fans to use FastHockey.com rather than the new HockeyTV.com until they are able to complete the transition to the new platform.