Friday, October 31, 2008

Brahmas take the sting out of the Scorpions

Win 5-2 on Halloween night

Despite New Mexico outshooting Texas 33-23, goalie David Cacciola earned his first win of the season over his former team as the Brahmas dominated the Scorpions in a 5-2 road win. The Brahmas improved to 4-1-1 while the Scorpions fell to 2-3-1.

The game opened up with physical play on both sides. New Mexico outshot the Brahmas 9-5 but David Cacciola was strong in the net. New Mexico center Sam Bowles had the first opportunity to score for the Scorpions when he raced past Craig Minard to make a shot, only to have the puck hit the post. Sniper Scott Sheppard put Texas up 1-0 with a shorthanded goal 6:37 into the game with the assist from Pete Rouleau.

New Mexico tied the game up with Craig Macdonald's unassisted goal at the 8:41 mark in the second period. Macdonald skated into the zone, beat the defenseman and slid the puck right past Cacciola. The Brahmas took control of the game on consecutive powerplays courtesy of Neil Trimm. Craig Minard gave the Brahmas the lead at the 10:23 mark with a powerplay goal on Jason Wolfe, assisted by Scott Sheppard and Tyler Skworchinski. Lance Galbraith extended the lead 83 seconds later with a feed from Grant Jacobsen, ripping one past Wolfe who didn't have a chance of making the save.

New Mexico outshot the Brahmas 13-9 in the second period but were no match for the Texas offense. Matt Quinn closed the period in the Brahmas overwhelming favor when he came out of the penalty box in time to make a clean breakaway and take a pass set up by Pete Rouleau and Tyler Skworchinski to score on Wolfe, giving the Brahmas a 4-1 lead. It was Quinn's fourth goal of the season.

The third period was physical affair on both sides. Seven seconds after the Scorpions' Russell Smith was sent to the box for hooking, Tyler Skworchinski gave the Brahmas a 5-1 lead when he redirected a Craig Minard shot and placed it behind Jason Wolfe. Five minutes into the period, enforcer Lance Galbraith, tired of the shenanigans by Scorpions defenseman Tyler Fuller, dropped his gloves and gave him a Texas-sized whooping before both were sent off to the penalty boxes to serve five-minute majors for fighting.

Once again, New Mexico outshot the Brahmas in the third 12-9 but could not undo the damage done by the bulls in the second period. With less than a minute remaining in the game, rookie forward Neil Trimm pushed home a rebound, stuffing the puck and Cacciola into the net, scoring his first goal as a professional. The game ended with a final score of 5-2. Lance Galbraith and Craig McDonald nearly came to blows after the final horn sounded but both left the ice peacefully after trading some harsh words.

For the Brahmas, the game went much better than Thursday night's affair in Amarillo. Texas scored three unanswered goals, two on the powerplay, on Scorpion's goaltender Jason Wolfe. They scored three goals on five shots in the second period. They were 3-for-4 on the power play and killed all six New Mexico power-play attempts. Five different Brahmas scored goals (Scott Sheppard, Craig Minard, Lance Galbraith, Matt Quinn, Tyler Skworchinski) while four Brahmas finished with two points for the night (Pete Rouleau, Tyler Skworchinski, Scott Sheppard and Craig Minard).

The Brahmas head home in preparation for their next road game against the Oklahoma City Blazers on Friday night. The Game starts at 7:10pm and can bee seen on Nifty-TV.

You can view the box score here

Photo Credit: New Mexico Scorpions

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