Insider Preview: Texas Brahmas at Amarillo Gorillas

Bulls and Apes meet for the first of three this season

The Texas Brahmas (3-2-2, 8 points) are at the Cal Farley Auditorium tonight for their first meeting with one of the CHL’s biggest surprises this season, the Amarillo Gorillas. The Brahmas went 4-0-1 last season against a very different Gorillas team that ended the year with the league’s worst record at 19-42-3. Bruce Pellerin, who took over as the Gorillas head coach in January, used the off-season to re-build the team, his way, and the results have been remarkable.

Amarillo is 5-3-0 (10 points) and in second place in the CHL's Southern Conference, (behind the Odessa Jackalopes) having already produced more than one-quarter of their win total from last year in just eight games.

Although they have lost their last two games in a row (for the first time this season) on the road against Laredo (5-2) and Rio Grande Valley (3-2), they are 3-1-0 at home, having beaten Odessa (2-1), Mississippi (5-2) and Missouri (3-2). Their only home loss thus far was a 9-4 rout by Odessa on October 23rd.

The Gorillas offense has produced 3.5 goals per game behind the efforts of Joe Geunther (9 G, 3 A, +10), who has a league-best nine goals already, and five points in his last three games. Fellow forwards Anthony Battaglia (4 G, 6A, +10) and Jake Morissette (5 G, 4 A, 0) round out the top three offensive scorers. Andrew Smale leads Amarillo defensemen in scoring with six points on six assists.

The Gorillas have scored 57 percent of their goals this season in the third period (16 of 28), a dangerous stat for any opponent and especially the Brahmas who have not

On special teams, they’ve gone 0 for 11 on the power play in their past two games. They are ninth in the league with a 13.04% power play percentage and 11th in the league with an 81.63% penalty kill.

For the Brahmas, the missing piece of the puzzle is special teams play, especially with a remarkably inefficient power play. Currently in the statistical basement with a 7.69 percentage, the Brahmas will need to make an improvement with the man-advantage if they expect to compete with the Odessa Jackalopes, who score in one out of three opportunities and are easily the biggest obstacle to a repeat.

Mike Brown (3-2-0) is expected to be in net for the Gorillas. Brown, who has started five games for the Gorillas has a 2.93 GAA (10th) and a .920 save percentage (5th).

Joe Palmer (2-0-2) will be in net for the Brahmas. Palmer has a 2.07 GAA (2nd) and a .934 save percentage (1st).

Note: Brett Jaeger, who has retuned from his call up to the Houston Aeros) is serving his one game league suspension tonight.

The Gorillas are fully staffed with the return of David Nimmo who was taken off injured reserve today.

Brahmas forward Anders Strome (foot) is questionable as well. He was placed on the 14-day IR on October 17th. Matt Burto, on the 14-day IR since October 24th is doubtful. Mike Willemsen joins Strome and Burto as a scratch per Pointstreak but this can not be confirmed.

The game starts at 7:05pm CST and can be seen live (sort of) on CHL-TV. Zuroma will host a watching party as well if you care to venture to the NYTEX Sports Centre tonight.