Are these the Gorillas Amarillo has been looking for?

AMARILLO , Texas — Amarillo’s professional hockey teams, Rattlers or Gorillas, have not been known for jack rabbit starts in the season. In fact, they’ve tended to stutter at the beginning and then claw their way back up at season’s end. One would have to go back to the team Kevin Abrams put together in 2000-01 to find a team with a positive win-to-loss ratio during October play. The problem with that Rattlers squad though, was a rash of injuries that everyone swore had to be the result of a voodoo curse. They fell apart, and Abrams was sent back to Canada.

This year is different. Amarillo is a perfect 4-0 and enjoying the dizzy heights at the top of the Central Hockey League. Is this the best team the franchise has ever seen? They are solid in goal, the defense swarms all over the attacking team and they have the scoring power to bring anyone’s game to an end with sharp newcomers and savvy returning players who are familiar with each others game. On opening night in Wichita, Amarillo net minder Mike Brown started the season with a 5-0 shutout. The following night, in front of the home crowd, they handily took care of perennial nemesis in the Odessa Jackalopes with a 2-1 victory. Again it was Mike Brown in net, allowing only one puck to dribble off his back into the net.
 
It was Amarillo’s first home opener win in three seasons. Taking the ice again on Sunday against the last season’s Northeast Division Champion Mississippi RiverKings, the Gorillas exploded in the third period of a 1-1 hockey game to win the game, 5-2. Then on Wednesday night, they traveled to Prescott Valley, Arizona to defeat the Arizona Sundogs 5-2.
 
Early in the season, Gorillas fans have found themselves in the unfamiliar position of reading stats from the top of the page rather than the bottom.
 
The Gorillas have the league’s top four scoring leaders including returning forward Joe Guenther with seven points (5G, 2A), newcomer Anthony Battaglia with seven points (3G, 4A), former CHL Rookie of the Year David Nimmo with six points (2G, 4A) and returning center Jake Morissette with six points (3G, 3A). Guenther was named the CHL Player of the Week for his performance during the opening weekend.
 
Former NHL draft pick Mike Brown leads all CHL goaltenders in time played (180.00) and wins (3-0) and is second to Odessa’s Juha Toivonen (who has only played one game) with a 1.00 GAA and a .972 save percentage. Brown was named the Oakley/CHL Goaltender of the Week for his performance during the first three games of the season.
 
During the pre-season workouts, Amarillo head coach Brian Pellerin, himself a former Rattler and Gorilla player, stated the he was putting together a team that “other teams would not want to play against.” It’s probable that other teams didn’t even have Amarillo on their radar before October 16^th. It’s a sure bet they do now.
 
Contact the author @ rushe.hudson@prohockeynews.com