The Insider Preview - Texas Brahmas @ Wichita Thunder

With six games left in regular season, Brahmas looking for points in race for Governor's Cup

The Texas Brahmas (39-14-5, 83 points) are on the road to the Kansas Coliseum to take on the Wichita Thunder (19-36-3, 41 points) in Friday night. The Brahmas beat the Thunder 4-2 on November 21st, their only other meeting this season.

The Brahmas remain tied with the Mississippi RiverKings and one point behind the Colorado Eagles in the race for the Governor’s Cup. All three teams play tonight. This Thunder team needs two wins to avoid the stigma of being labeled the worst team in franchise history. They probably won't get one of those tonight.

The Thunders' top three scorers are Jason Duda (LW) with 50 points (17 G, 33 A), Troy Okufany (C) with 34 points (15 G, 19 A) and Joel Hanson (F) with 32 points (14 G, 18 A). On Special teams, the Thunder are ranked 15th in the league overall on the powerplay at 13.93% and 12th at home at 15.8%. On the penalty kill, Wichita is ranked 10th in the league overall at 83.14% and 7th at home at 84.8%.

There is no single player that the Brahmas need to watch out for. The Thunder is coming off four straight losses after getting two road wins in a row over the Rapid City Rush. They are 10-15-3 at home.

The top three scorers for the Brahmas are Scott Sheppard (F) with 63 points (31 G, 32 A), Jordan Cameron (F) with 58 points (22 G, 36 A) and Grant Jacobsen (F) with 53 points (20 G, 33 A). On special teams, the Brahmas are ranked 3rd in the league overall on the powerplay at 20.24% and 4th on the road at 19.4%. On the penalty kill, the Brahmas are ranked 11th in the league overall at 81.15% and 15th on the road at 75.1%. The Brahmas remain the league-leaders with 19 short-handed goals.

Jason Deitsch is the man to watch on the Brahmas squad. In the last 10 games, Deitsch has scored 16 points (8 G, 8 A) and is a +8. He has scored 40 points (18 G, 22 A) in total and is a +17 this season. He scored three points (1 G, 2 A) against the Thunder in the last meeting.

Brett Jaeger (26-7-4-2) will get the start for the Brahmas. Krister Toews (11-18-2) is expected in net for the Thunder.

The Thunder are expected to be without forward Luke Hunter and defenseman Jonathan Bernier. Defensemen Pascal Bedard, Greg Pasista, Connor MacDonald, goaltender Tim Boron and left wing Stan Yanchishyn have all been put on season ending IR within the last month. Defenseman Rob Stanfield left the team on Monday to return home for a job. They have three healthy D men on the squad, (I believe) three of them are rookies.

Forward Scott Sheppard and defenseman Mike Vellinga are listed on IR. I'm not sure if Kevin McLeod will play tonight. Goaltender Cody Daniel was re-signed to a five-game contract today. He made the trip to Wichita to serve as backup.

Massey Ratings predicts the Brahmas will be victorious (70-30). Let's hope they're right!

The game begins at 7:05 and will be broadcast on Nifty-TV.