Rough night in goal - Jason Deitsch's unassisted power play goal was one of four that got past Kevin DesFosses

Back in third place!

Brahmas dominate; defeat Laredo 4-0

The Texas Brahmas were in top form tonight as they wrestled third place in the Southern Conference away from the Laredo Bucks in an entertaining Friday night contest at the NYTEX Sports Center. Three unanswered goals in the first period highlighted a game that the Brahmas absolutely needed to win and win they did, shutting out the Bucks 4-0.

The Brahmas showed the intensity expected of a reigning CHL championship team and never let up for 60 minutes.

With the win, the Brahmas record goes to 24-17-5 and with 53 points, they reclaim the crucial third place slot in the Southern Conference.

Newly acquired forward Matt Pierce put the Brahmas up 1-0 at the 2:05 mark after picking off a pass in Bucks territory and then sending a quick shot past Kevin Desfosses from the slot. The unassisted goal was Pierce's eighth of the season and first as a Brahma.

A High-Sticking call on Bucks defenseman Paul Elliot gave the Brahmas their first power play opportunity of the night and Jason Deitsch made the most of it, scoring an unassisted tally from the top of the slot at the 11:44 mark. It was Deitsch's ninth goal of the season.

Continuing his amazing scoring streak, Jordan Cameron struck with 6:27 left in the first period to put the Brahmas up 3-0. Tyler Skworchinski was in on the assist. Cam now has seven straight games with a goal, including a power play goal, a game-winner and three short-handed goals.

On the ensuing face-off, the Bucks' Robin Richards and Nathan Perrott squared off for the first of three big fights on the night. As a result, both received Five-Minute Fighting Majors and Perrott got an early trip to the showers with a 10-Minute Fighting (No Tie Down) Game Misconduct. In other words, he had an unstrapped fight strap on his sweater.

Laredo out shot the Brahmas 7-6 in the first period but with 50% of the Brahmas shots leading to goals, the Bucks went into the locker room with a lot to think about.

Shots were even at nine in the middle frame but neither team was able to score in the middle frame.

An interference call on Benjamin Dieude-Fauvel led to Brahmas defenseman Luke Sellars putting up the only score in the final period, coming at the 13:42 mark with the assists from Matt Pierce and Grant Jacobsen.

Jacobsen later came off the ice after being slashed by Maxime Lincourt (I think). Lincourt was not assessed a penalty and Dan Wildfong was livid. I'm not sure of the exact nature of the injury but it didn't look good. Jacobsen was in obvious pain as he left to be attended to by Tom Hart.

Tempers flared and Luke Sellars later duked it out with Lincourt at the 19:48 mark, leading to Five Minute Fighting Majors and early ejections for both. 10 seconds later, Matt Burto Brawled with Ryan Ford resulting in the same penalty for both. The game ended two seconds later.

Laredo had a 12-4 shot advantage in the final frame and a 28-19 shot advantage in the game but with the loss, boarded the bus for 11 hour bus ride to Hidalgo, where they will face the Rio Grande Valley Killer Bees tonight.

Brett Jaeger made 38 saves on 28 shots and earned the shoot out win; his fourth win in a row. His record goes to 13-10-1-2. Kevin Desfosses made 15 saves on 19 shots and takes the loss. His record with Laredo goes to 5-3-1-1.

The Brahmas went two for six on the power play. Laredo went zero for three. The Brahmas were assessed 33 minutes on eight infractions. The Bucks received 29 minutes on 10 infractions.

The 3rd Star of the game went to Jason Deitsch who had an unassisted power play goal. The 2nd Star was awarded to Matt Pierce who scored what was essentially the game-winning goal in his first game as a Brahma (he also had an assist) and the 1st Star went to Brett Jaeger for an amazing evening in net.

You can view the box score here

You can view my photos from the game here and here (I'll have all the photos edited and up for viewing later today)

The Brahmas will host the Allen Americans tonight at the NYTEX Sports Center for the seventh meeting between the two teams this season. The series is tied 3-3 and neither team has won in the others building thus far...this one is going to be good! I liked this line from my previous post, so I'm going to say it again - Be there, be loud, believe!

Photo Credit: Robert Keith