Texas Brahmas looking for a win on the road

Bulls face winless Amarillo Gorillas at Cal Farley Coliseum

The Texas Brahmas are on the road for tonight's game against the Amarillo Gorillas. They are 1-1-0 after losing last Friday's season opener 5-1 on the road against the Bossier-Shreveport Mudbugs and then winning their home opener against the Mississippi RiverKings 4-2 on Saturday.

The Brahmas have made some roster changes prior to tonight's game. Defenseman Alex Grieg was traded to Amarillo on Saturday and the Brahmas acquired Ryan Waldner today from the Gorillas to take his place. Another defenseman, Ross Rouleau was put on waivers on Thurday.

Two of last season's prolific scoring forwards, Scott Sheppard and Grant Jacobsen have re-signed and now clear of immigration issues, are expected to play tonight. Forwards Marc Carragher and Greg McConnell will sit out tonight.

On defense, the Brahmas will look to improve on penalty killing after starting the season 15th in the league, allowing four powerplay goals in 12 chances (66.7% on the PK). Brett Jaeger, coming off the win against Mississippi, will start at goaltender.

The Gorillas lost a two-game series against the New Mexico Scorpions last weekend to open their season, including a 6-0 shutout at their home opener on Saturday. This after the Gorillas beat New Mexico twice in the pre-season.

With an 0-2-0 start, the Gorillas head coach Tom Coolen is hoping for a better game against the Brahmas.

"Texas has good goaltending and good scoring. We are going to have to play better, obviously, than we did last weekend, " Coolen told Amarillo.com's Dave Henry. "There were a lot of positives for us last week," Coolen said. "If our goaltending would have been better, we definitely would have won one of those games, without a question in my mind.

After Sebastien Jonsson and Simon Nielsen gave up 6 goals each in the first two games, Coolen will start rookie goaltender Ryan Scott tonight. Scott was in training camp with the NHL's Buffalo Sabres and was 1-1-0 with a 4.45 goals against average in three games played last season with the Wheeling Nailers (ECHL). He played for four years at SUNY-Oswego. On March 18, 2007, the Lakers won the 2006-07 NCAA Division III National Championship, the first NCAA championship ever for the school.

Amarillo has also made some roster changes, putting forwards Mark Black and Pat Lee and defenseman Jaime Wright on waivers this week. Forward Brett McConnachie, who was released before the season opener has re-signed and will play tonight. Left Wing Luke Lynes was assigned to the Gorillas on Wednesday by the Springfield Falcons (AHL). He is also expected to suit up against the Brahmas.

Coolen is hoping for some improvement from his defense and not just from goaltending.

"I'm more concerned about stopping goals, Coolen said. "We gave up too many soft goals. We broke down a few times defensively in our own zone that led to goals. That's what I'm more concerned with."

The game begins at 7:05 CST and can be watched on Nifty-TV