Texas Brahmas trample the Odessa Jackalopes

Scott Sheppard, Grant Jacobsen lead scoring in 7-3 victory

The Texas Brahmas, backed by a rowdy home crowd, erased the word "undefeated" from the Odessa Jackalopes in a sound 7-3 victory that saw terrific efforts on both offense and defense for the bulls.

The first period was a defensive battle, ripe with penalties on both benches. The Brahmas outshot the Jacks 11-5 but both goaltenders were perfect and the period ended without a score.

The Brahmas came out gunning just 28 seconds into the 2nd period when Grant Jacobsen raced the puck down the ice on a three-on-one breakaway. Jacobsen passed it to Scott Sheppard who fed it to Justin Kinnunen. Kinnunen slapped it behind Jacks netminder Juha Toivonen before he knew what hit him and the Brahmas took a 1-0 lead. They held that lead for the remainder of the game.

Six minutes later, Scott Sheppard scored on the powerplay with the assist by Grant Jacobsen and Tyler Skworchinski, giving the Brahmas a 2-0 lead. Odessa, not ready to surrender, scored on a 4-on-3 powerplay when Sebastien Thinel put a pass from Jeff Pierce by Jaeger.

Sheppard and Jacobsen teamed up again to put the puck in Tyler Skworchinski's path for another powerplay score at the 15:06 mark. Craig Minard and Justin Kinnunen fed a pass to Marc Belanger for another powerplay goal less than two minutes later. The Jacks' Kory Karlander cut into the Brahmas' three-goal lead with three seconds remaining in the period, scoring his second goal of the season off an assist from Jeff Pierce and Dave Van Drunen.

The third period belonged to the Brahmas who added three goals starting with Scott Sheppard’s second of the game, unassisted at the 4:09 mark. Matt Quinn scored next for Texas on the assist from Pete Rouleau and Marc Belanger at 12:37. Dominic Leveille would add one more for Odessa on assists from Brian Swiniarski and Russ Moyer at 17:38. The Brahmas led 6-3 when Grant Jacobsen scored a shorthanded goal at 16:54 on an assist from Sheppard.

The Brahmas record improved to 3-1-0 and they are now tied with Rio Grande Valley to lead the Southeast Division with 6 points each.

The key contributors to the game were Scott Sheppard and Grant Jacobsen. Both re-signed with the team on Thursday and played their first game together on Friday in Amarillo. Sheppard’s five point (2 G, 3 A) night earned him the first star. Jacobsen earned the second star with his four point (1 G, 3 A) performance. Each forward was a +3 in the game.

Sheppard sounds content with the way the team has come together in such a short time together.

“The first couple of games guys were just trying to feel each other out,” Sheppard told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, “I think our line played well today and our power play has been semi-fair. When you get those chances you need to take advantage of them.”

The Brahmas were sound on the penalty kill, stopping eight of nine opportunities for the Jacks on the man-advantage. The bulls scored three goals in seven power play opportunities.

Brett Jaeger stopped 25 of 28 shots to improve his record to 3-0.

“Our defense has logged a lot of ice time the past two nights,” Brahmas coach Dan Wildfong told the Star-Telegram. “They did an exceptional job this weekend. They came out with a lot of energy.”

The Brahmas travel to Amarillo on Thursday to face the Gorillas for the second time this season at the Amarillo Civic Center. The game starts at 7:05pm.

See the box score here

See photos from the game here

Photo Credit: Robert Keith