Texas Brahmas take on the defending CHL champion Arizona Sundogs

Three-game series at Tim's Toyota Center begins on Wednesday

The Texas Brahmas would like to say they've played the Arizona Sundogs before. Last season, that could have only taken place in the CHL championship series. It almost happened. This season, the Brahmas and the Sundogs will meet four times during the regular season. Three of those meetings will take place this week at Tim's Toyota Center in Prescott Valley, Arizona.

The Brahmas (13-7-3, 29 points), currently on their longest road trip of the season, suffered losses in four of their last six games, including two losses to the Mississippi RiverKings this past weekend.

They will face a Sundogs team (10-15-1, 21 Points) that has also lost four of their last six games, but also three in a row before that. The Sundogs have yet to put together a cohesive defense this season. They are allowing more than four goals per game, and have allowed a league-most 113 goals overall.

Here are some additional facts and stats about the Sundogs:

On offense, they do have scoring leaders. At forward, Joel Irving is second in the league with 37 points (17 G, 20 A) and Martin Gascon has 31 points (7 G, 24 A). Rookie Adam Perry (assigned by the San Antonio Rampage) has 23 points (11 G, 12 A) in only 13 games played. Left wing Karl Sellan has 22 points (16 G, 6 A) and leads the league with a .333 shot percentage.

On defense, 38-year-old Chris Bartalone is third in the league with 21 points (4 G, 17 A).

Unlike the Brahmas, the Sundogs are perfect in shootouts this season, having won all three appearances this season. Arizona beat Odessa by a 4-3 margin on November 1st, knocked off Corpus Christi on November 8th by a final score of 3-2 and beat Rocky Mountain 5-4 last Wednesday.

The Sundogs' goaltenders have struggled throughout the season. Marco Emond (7-8-1) is 21st in the league with a 3.77 GAA and ranks 23rd with a .888 save percentage. He has played in 17 games (second most in the league). Joel Gistedt is 34th in the league with a 4.85 GAA and ranks 35th with a .846 save percentage. This isn't much of a difference from the Sundogs' overall performance last season. What they lacked in goaltending was made up for on offense.

The Sundogs are the most penalized team in the league with 789 penalty minutes. Left wing Karl Sellan leads the league with 203 PIM (17 majors and 39 minors). They are 14th in the league with a dismal 78.01 penalty kill percentage (81.0% at home) having given up 42 powerplay goals against. They've also given up a league-most eight short-handed goals.

Despite the many shortcomings of this Sundogs squad, they are still a dynamic group of players and like the Brahmas, second in their division. Arizona will be looking to get some wins in this series to try to make up some ground on the number one team in the league and their division rivals, the Odessa Jackalopes. Expect a great series.

Game one is on Wednesday night at 7:05pm. The game will be broadcast on Nifty-TV.

Image Credit: Arizona Sundogs