An out of position Alexandre Vincent looks on as Travis Banga scores

How sweet it is!

Texas Brahmas win 16th straight home game, defeat Odessa 5-3

In a show of strength in the Southern Conference, the Texas Brahmas proved they are in full control of their destiny with a 5-3 regulation victory against the visiting Odessa Jackalopes. With 16 consecutive home wins, the Brahmas remain perfect at the NYTEX Sports Centre in 2009 with just three home games left in the regular season.

The Brahmas' record improves to 39-13-5, 83 points. They lead the Laredo Bucks by 16 points in the Southeast Division and now have a nine point lead over the Jackalopes in the race for the conference title.

Both the Mississippi RiverKings and the Colorado Eagles won tonight so the race for the Governor's Cup looks like this:

Colorado Eagles: 84 points
Texas Brahmas : 83 points
Mississippi RiverKings : 83 points

The Brahmas and the Jackalopes traded penalties twice before the first score of the game. With Jacks Captain Kory Karlander in the box for tripping, Tyler Skworchinski swooped in on a setup by Pete Rouleau and Jordan Cameron and netted the Brahmas’ first goal of the night at the 11:45 mark. It was his 14th goal of the season.

Brett Jaeger stood strong throughout the period and the teams headed for the locker room with eight shots apiece after 20 minutes. Relentless statistic: The Brahmas are perfect at home this season when leading after one.

The Brahmas opened up the scoring in the second period, once again on the powerplay. Travis Banga took advantage of an out of position Alexandre Vincent, easily moving a feed from Brandon Benedict into the net at the 2:01 mark to make it 2-0. Craig Minard was also in on the assist.

A 3-0 lead was established at the 11:29 mark when Kevin McLeod scored his 18th goal of the season on a feed from Nathan Saunders and Greg McConnell.

With less than five minutes left in the middle period, Odessa finally got back into the game, registering two unanswered goals on Brett Jaeger. Defenseman Russ Moyer scored first with an unassisted goal at the 15:02 mark to make it 3-1. Then, on a powerplay opportunity with just 1:05 left on the clock, Moyer fed the puck to Mike Lesperance who beat Jaeger to make it a 3-2 contest.

The Brahmas outshot the Jacks 12-8 in the second period.

The crowd at NYTEX was stifled after Odessa scored again at the 7:05 mark in the third period to tie the game at 3-3. This time it was defenseman Josh Chase, assisted by Kenny Bernard and Kory Karlander.

With the spectre of another overtime period looming, the Brahmas went back to work. Unfortunately, it was an injury to Kevin McLeod that lit the spark that got the Brahmas back on track. After receiving a massive board check from forward Jean Borbeau at the 12:56 mark, McLeod was escorted back to the locker room by athletic trainer Tom Hart. He seemed to be favoring his left forearm. Borbeau was given a five minute Board Checking Major penalty and a 10-minute Board Checking Game Misconduct, much to the displeasure of head coach Paul Gillis.

The Jackalope penalty-killers thought they had successfully broken up the Brahmas' man-advantage but with just twelve seconds remaining in the powerplay, Jason Deitsch sent a bullet past Alexandre Vincent for the 4-3 lead at the 17:45 mark. Brandon Benedict and Jordan Cameron were credited with the assist.

A late penalty on Nathan Saunders for handling the puck gave the Jackalopes a final chance to tie it up again but pulling their goaltender proved fatal when Jordan Cameron, the league leader in short-handed goals, sealed the win with an unassisted empty net goal at the 18:54 mark.

The Brahmas outshot the Jackalopes 16-10 in the final period and 36-26 in the game.

Brett Jaeger stopped 23 of 26 shots against to pull off the win. His record goes to 26-7-4-2.

The Brahmas went 3 for 6 on the powerplay. The Jackalopes went 1 for 8.

The Brahmas were assessed 18 minutes on nine infractions. Odessa was assessed 27 minutes on eight infractions.

Odessa's Russ Moyer earned the 3rd star for an unassisted goal and an assist on the night. Jordan Cameron received the 2nd star for his 7th short-handed goal of the season and two assists. Jason Deitsch was given the 1st star for his game-winning powerplay goal.

You can view the box score here

You can view my photos from the game here

The Brahmas will get a day to rest before preparing for their next home game on Tuesday evening against the Bossier-Shreveport Mudbugs.

Photo Credit: Robert Keith