Brahmas win 3-1, sweep Killer Bees

Guggenberger sets CHL shutout record

The Texas Brahmas completed their sweep of the Rio Grande Valley Killer Bees with a 3-1 victory in a physical contest at the NYTEX Sports Centre on Saturday night.

Mark Guggenberger held the Killer Bees scoreless for the first 23:15, setting a Central Hockey League record for consecutive scoreless minutes at 238:31, which exceeds John DeCaro's mark of 222:41, set back in 2008-09 with the Bossier-Shreveport Mudbugs.

Guggenberger made 19 saves on 20 shots, lowering his league-leading goals against average to 1.88 and raising his CHL-best save percentage to .929.

Phil Fox got the Brahmas on the board early, just 1:59 into the first period. Fox's 17th goal of the season was assisted by Thomas Galiani, who recorded the first point of his professional career on the play.

Tyler Barr dropped gloves with Nicolas Rioux at the 10:10 mark and the two were assessed five-minute Fighting Majors for their efforts.

The Brahmas had the 10-6 shot advantage in the opening frame and took the 1-0 lead into the locker room.

A Cross-Checking call on Erik Spady early in the middle frame put the Brahmas' penalty-killers (4th best in the CHL) into action, but they couldn't prevent Killer Bees forward Tomas Klempa from scoring the equalizer on a rebound at the 3:15 mark. The goal ended Guggenberger's shutout streak with a shot that the Brahmas' goalie had no chance of stopping. Dan Gendur and Scott Balan earned the assists on the play.

The Brahmas were outshot 9-7 in the second 20 and the game remained knotted at 1-1 heading into the second intermission.

Brady Leavold set the tone for the third period, earning a No Category Game Misconduct, originally listed on Pointstreak as an Abuse of Officials Game Misconduct and the Killer Bees received the remaining three penalties of the game, setting up both of the Brahmas' scores in the frame.

Chad Woollard's power play goal, his fourth short-handed strike of the season, with 5:17 remaining in regulation gave the Brahmas a lead they would not relinquish. For Woollard, the score pulls him within one of tying Chris Richards (376) for 10th on the CHL all-time goal-scoring list.

Brahmas' captain Adam Hogg added another power play goal, an empty-netter with 13 seconds to go in the period to make the final tally 3-1 in favor of Texas.

Mark Guggenberger stopped 19 of 20 shots and earned the win. His record goes to 15-4-3-3 with the league's best 1.88 GAA and .929 Save Percentage. As Cowtown pointed out, Guggs' Save Percentage for the last five games is over 98 %. He saved 120 of 122 shots faced!

The Brahmas were assessed 25 minutes on 11 infractions and went 2 for 6 on the power play.

Referee: Boone Bruggman
Linesman 1: Bill McGoldrick
Linesman 2: Cory Piche

1st Star: Mark Guggenberger
2nd Star: Chad Woollard (1 G)
3rd Star: Phil Fox (1 G)

You can view Pointstreak's Box Score here, Game Recap here and their GameLive broadcast here.

The Brahmas will travel to the Allen Event Center to take on the Americans on Tuesday. The game is set for a 7:05 pm CST opening face-off.

Photo Credit: Robert Keith