Mark Guggenberger had another exceptional night in goal, stopping 26 of 27 shots faced

Brahmas swat Killer Bees, 4-1

Woollard scores twice, Guggenberger is stellar in Fort Worth Face-off finale

The Texas Brahmas made up for their dismal performance last night (or was it the old rope-a-dope) at the Fort Worth Convention Center with a commanding 4-1 win tonight in the second game of the inaugural Fort Worth Face-off.

Unfortunately, the Allen Americans defeated the Laredo Bucks 5-4 in a shootout, so the Brahmas remain a point behind them and in third place. No worries there.

Mark Guggenberger was stellar in net for the Brahmas, stopping 26 of 27 shots faced for his 19th win of the season. Chad Woollard took point on offense, scoring two goals and Brendon Hodge tallied the game-winner. Woollard's two goals move him into a tie for eighth on the Central Hockey League's all-time goal-scoring list with former Tulsa Oilers winger Sylvain Naud at 279.

For me, the game started out with just the right touch - following "tough guy"Aaron Boogaard's shot on goal, the first of the game according to Pointstreak, Tyler Barr dropped gloves with the "booger", as he's affectionately called by my wife. Both earned Five Minute Majors for their efforts.

Here's a few shots of that action from TAPELEG over at Jerseys and Hockey Love:


The icing on the first period cake followed at the 13:40 mark when Chad Woollard beat Wylie Rogers to make it 1-0, assisted by Brendon Hodge and T.J. Fox. The Brahmas by the way, entered the game 21-4-3 when scoring first this season.

Woollard's tally was his first at the FWCC since 03/20/05 (the final game of the 2005-06 campaign) against the Bossier-Shreveport Mudbugs - yes, the final time Woollard and Wildfong played against each other (as players).

Not sure what happened, but Referee Boone Bruggman made a couple of trips to have his left side/torso looked out during the period. Brady Leavold was not in the area, so...hey, just kidding tweetheart!

The Brahmas doubled the Killer Bees' shots in the opening frame 12-6 and carried the lead into the first break.

The Brahmas nearly had a score off a shot by Brendon Hodge (I believe) at the 4:24 mark, but the puck hit off the post and Wylie Rogers managed a tremendous save by pouncing on it. The announcer called goal, which sent a host of the Brahmas bulls onto the ice, leading to a short time-out while the ice was cleared.

Hodge scored just 66 seconds later on a rebound in front of the net, assisted by Tyler Barr and Brock Meadows. Make that 2-0 Brahmas.

Following an interference call on Killer Bees defenseman Georgi Petrov, Chad Woollard scored 66 seconds into the resulting power play. T.J. Fox and Phil Fox were credited with the assists. Make that 3-0 Brahmas.

Tyler Barr opens a can of Texas Brahmas Whoop-A%! on Georgi Petrov

The Killer Bees' frustration led to a melee when Brady Leavold went after a Brahmas player (not sure who) and Chris Moran jumped in to assist, meanwhile Georgi Petrov and Tyler Barr mixed it up as well. Here's the results:

Rio Grande Valley - Georgi Petrov - (Fighting Major), 5 min, 9:28
Texas - Tyler Barr - (Fighting Major), 5 min, 9:28
Rio Grande Valley - Brady Leavold - (Instigator), 2 min, 9:28
Texas - Chris Moran - (Fighting (Intervenor) Game Misconduct), 10 min, 9:28
Rio Grande Valley - Brady Leavold - (Fighting Major), 5 min, 9:28
Rio Grande Valley - Brady Leavold - (Fighting (Instigator) Misconduct), 10 min, 9:28
Rio Grande Valley - Georgi Petrov - (Fighting (Aggressor) Game Misconduct), 10 min, 9:28
Texas - Tyler Barr - (Fighting (Aggressor) Game Misconduct), 10 min, 9:28

All four players were ejected as a result of their efforts. The 2-minute Instigator assessed on Leavold gave the Brahmas a power play but the purple and black failed to convert for a score.

The Killer Bees managed a power play score to cut the Brahmas lead to 3-1, following a Cross-checking minor was assessed on Brock Meadows. Nicolas Rioux managed to beat Guggenberger off a set up by Aaron Lee and Dan Gendur.

Shots on goal favored the Brahmas 10-8 in the middle frame.

It was mostly the Brahmas defenders in the final period who stymied chance after chance for the Killer Bees who led in shots 13-3.

Ruskowski took a chance, pulling Wylie Rogers during a late power play opportunity but the 6-on-4 advantage was fruitless as Dan Nicholls scored on the empty net to seal the final score at 4-1.

Mark Guggenberger stopped 26 of 27 shots faced and earned the win. His record goes to 19-6-3-3 with a 1.87 GAA (1st in the league) and a .927 Save Percentage (also 1st in the league).

The Brahmas were assessed 43 minutes on 9 infractions and went for 1 for 3 on the power play.

Referee: Boone Bruggman
Linesman 1: T.J. Nua
Linesman 2: Cory Piche

1st Star: Chad Woollard (2 G)
2nd Star: Brendon Hodge (1 G, 1 A)
3rd Star: Mark Guggenberger

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

Here's a great blog post by the aforementioned TAPELEG over at Jerseys and Hockey Love. Enjoy!

The Brahmas will return to North Richland Hills for some much-needed rest and will begin preparing for next weekend when they will host the Missouri Mavericks on Friday and the Laredo Bucks on Saturday.

Photo Credits: Top - Bob Haynes, Special to the Star-Telegram. All others - TAPELEG/Jerseys and Hockey Love