Cal Wild's first period goal was all the Brahmas needed/Photo Credit: Chip Crail

Brahmas take 3-2 series lead with 1-0 shutout

Cal Wild nets lone goal in Game Five

The Texas Brahmas put on a glorious defensive display for the Allen Americans and their fans tonight at the Allen Event Center and took away a 3-2 series lead in the opening round of the Berry Conference playoffs.

Calin Wild scored the lone goal in the contest, assisted by newcomers Mike Hellyer and Brett Findlay and Brad Fogal, in his first start as a Texas Brahmas goalie, earned his first professional shutout in front of a crowd of 3,999.

With the win, the Brahmas will have the home ice advantage on Tuesday evening, when they host the Americans and attempt to close out the series and advance to the Berry Conference Championship against the Wichita Thunder, who won their series against the Rio Grande Valley Killer Bees with a 6-2 win this evening.

But is it time to start celebrating? Maybe not - according to uberblogger Greg Rajan: When facing elimination the past two playoffs, Allen is 6-2. That includes the Amerks overcoming a 3-2 deficit to beat Laredo in a 2010 South semifinal, winning Game 7 at Odessa in the South final that same year and coming back from 2-0 down against Odessa last year in a best-of-5 after dropping the first two games at home. So Allen has a history of coming back.

Brad Fogal stopped 23 of 23 shots faced and earned his second win as a member of the Brahmas and his first professional shut out.

The Brahmas were assessed 6 minutes on 3 infractions and went 0 for 3 on the power play.

Referee: Zak Blazic
Linesman 1: T.J. Nua
Linesman 2: Bill McGoldrick

1st Star: Brad Fogal 
2nd Star: Calin Wild (1 G)
3rd Star: Marco Cousineau

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

Game Six of the best-of-seven series is set for Tuesday night at the NYTEX Sports Centre with the opening puck drop scheduled for 7:30 pm CST.

Photo Credit: Robert Keith