Brahmas lose again in Bossier City

Fall a point behind the Colorado Eagles in Governor's Cup race, Mississippi gaining

The Texas Brahmas lost their second game in a row against the Bossier-Shreveport Mudbugs at the CenturyTel Center tonight by a score of 4-2. Despite erasing one goal deficits in the first two periods, the Brahmas special teams were ineffective and a four man defensive unit was unable to halt the Mudbug advance in the third.

With the loss, the Brahmas record goes to 37-13-5 and they remain at 79 points. The Colorado Eagles lost in a shootout with the Mississippi RiverKings but earned a point to re-take the lead in the Governor's Cup race with 80 points. The win was Mississippi's eighth in a row. The RiverKings are now within three points of the Eagles and two points of the Brahmas with 77 points. With their win, the Eagles claimed their sixth Northwest Division title in six seasons as a franchise.

After placing defenseman Danny Force on waivers this morning, the Brahmas (without Justin Kinnunen, Nathan Saunders and Eric Lundberg) tried to make do tonight with Craig Minard, Mike Vellinga, Kevin McLeod and Ross Rouleau, with a little help from forward Tyler Skworchinski. The result showed in the score. Frankly, it could have been worse.

The Brahmas went 0 for 9 on the powerplay against the best penalty killers in the league and their own PK unit (12th in the league) allowed three goals on four powerplays by the Mudbugs.

The first period started out pretty even with the Brahmas and Mudbugs matching shots and playing physical from the get go.

After shutting down two Brahmas powerplays, the Mudbugs scored 36 seconds into their first man advantage after Jason Deitsch was called for holding. Defenseman Simon Mangos shot the puck from the bottom of the circle, finding an open spot between Brett Jaeger’s blocker side and the goalpost to make it 1-0 at the 10:38 mark. J.J. Martin and Chris Brassard were in on the assist.

A bit of a scary moment occurred when Kevin McLeod went down hard in the corner of the Brahmas defensive zone. He lay on the ice for a short time but shook it off and was able to return to play.

Thanks to some sloppy play in the Mudbugs defensive zone, the Brahmas managed to create a turnover and tie up the game with just 57 second left in the period. Brandon Benedict’s cross-ice pass was blocked by a Mudbug defender, but bounced right back to him and he neat Jon Horrell with his second chance to make it 1-1 at the 19:03 mark.

The Brahmas outshot the Mudbugs 10-9 in the first 20 minutes.

The Mudbugs re-took the lead 3:16 into the second during a 5-on-3 powerplay opportunity. Dale Lupul’s centering pass to the front bounced off Tyrel Lucas’ skate and right to Travis Clayton, who fired it past Brett Jaeger to give the ‘Bugs a 2-1 lead.

The Brahmas were able to tied it up again just 32 seconds later when Matt Burto and Kevin McLeod set up the play from the corner that led to Pete Rouleau’s shorthanded goal, making it a 2-2 game. Rouleau’s goal was the Brahmas' league-leading 17th shorthanded goal of the season.

The Brahmas out shot the Mudbugs 17-13 in the middle period but the Mudbugs killed off three straight Texas powerplays to keep the game even after two periods.

The Brahmas began the third period with 59 seconds left on the powerplay but were unable to capitalize once again. The scored the game-winner at the 13:58 mark after Kevin Cooper intercepted a pass from Quade Lightbody in the Brahmas’ zone and then wrapped around the net before sending a pass in the low slot to Joe Blaznek, who sent it in at the top corner on Jaeger’s glove side to make it 3-2.

Blaznek nearly scored again about 30 seconds later but his shot hit the post. Jordan Cameron also had a shot hit the post shortly thereafter.

After a late penalty call on Grant Jacobsen for high-sticking, Neil Clark intercepted a pass at neutral ice and raced in on a breakaway, beating Jaeger with a backhander to mark the 4-2 victory. Chris Brassard was credited with the assist.

The Brahmas outshot the Mudbugs 11 to nine in the final period and 38-31 in the game.

Brett Jaeger saved 27 of 31 shots to take his second loss at CenturyTel this season. His record goes to 25-7-4-2.

The Brahmas served just eight minutes on four infractions, but that was enough to change the course of the game. The Mudbugs were assessed 18 minutes on nine infractions and it didn't change a thing.

The third star of the game went to Brandon Benedict and deservedly so. Benny put up a good fight as usual both offensively and defensively. He scored his third goal in just 10 games as a Texas Brahma. He has nine points thus far. The first and second stars went to Mudbugs, so that's all I'll say about that.

You can view the Box score here

The Brahmas will return home to North Richland Hills to prepare for their next game on Friday, March 6th against the Corpus Christi IceRays at the NYTEX Sports Centre.

Photo Credits: Howard Cooper