HIDALGO, Texas – The Texas Brahmas defeated the Rio Grande Valley Killer Bees by a score of 3-1 on Friday night at the Dodge Arena in Hidalgo, Texas. For the second year in a row, the Brahmas have swept their opponent in the conference semi-final. This season, after the move to the Southern Conference, the Brahmas dethroned the Laredo Bucks to win the Southeast Division and pulled ahead of the Odessa Jackalopes to take first place in the conference. They now wait for the winner of the Bucks/Jackalopes series, which will determine their opponent for the Southern Conference Championship series.
As with the previous three games in the series, the Brahmas controlled the tempo of the game and were able to maintain their discipline through 60 minutes of play. “We’ve really limited our mistakes,” Brahmas head coach Dan Wildfong said. “I think we’re playing where we need to be, but obviously every round that you go with is going to get tougher and we know that and we have to be ready to bear down a little bit more.” The Brahmas took the early lead after the Bees’ Matt Byrnes was called for tripping, setting up the first power play of the game. Just 24 seconds into the man advantage, and with no defenders in the area, Pete Rouleau came in from the right circle to redirect a Kevin McLeod shot from the point, beating Killer Bees goaltender Wylie Rogers for the score at the 4:08 mark. Tyler Skworchinski was also in on the assist. After the first 20 minutes, although they led the shot count at 10-8, the ‘Bees were unable to solve Brett Jaeger, who was solid in the net and showed no ill effect from Wednesday night’s collision with Rio Grande’s Evan Rankin. The ‘Bees scored the equalizer at the 5:55 mark of the second period after a tripping call on Brahmas defenseman Mike Vellinga gave them the man-advantage. Rankin was charging the net and at the last moment, he sent the puck to Brent Gauvreau, who was stationed at the right circle. Gauvreau sent a blistering shot into the net before Jaeger could adjust from Rankin’s attack. Nathan Ansell was also credited with the assist. Killer Bees fans had little time to celebrate though, as the Brahmas would re-gain the lead just 15 seconds later after winning the face-off at center ice. Pete Rouleau’s shot was stopped but Skworchinski was able to flip the puck over the left ankle of a fallen Wylie Rogers on the rebound. At the 6:10 mark, it was 2-1 Brahmas. Once again, the ‘Bees led the shot count, this time by 13-10 in the second. Once again, they found themselves going into the locker room down by a goal. In what would be the final 20 minutes of play for Rio Grande Valley this season, the ‘Bees defense nearly held the Brahmas from any additional scoring. However, mistakes would continue to plague the ‘Bees in the third period. They took three penalties in a row and although their penalty kill was solid, the momentum of the game remained in the Brahmas’ favor. The final goal of the game would come just after ‘Bees head coach Chris Brooks pulled his goaltender in favor of the extra attacker. Skworchinski beat Rio Grande Valley’s defense and sent in the puck, unassisted at the 19:07 mark, sealing the win for Texas.
Jaeger stopped 31 of 32 shots to earn the win. He leads all CHL goaltenders in post-season play with four wins. Rogers had 20 saves in his fourth consecutive playoff loss. The third star went to Rouleau who had a goal and an assist on the night. The second star went ti Skworchinski who had two goals and an assist and the game’s first star went to goaltender Jaeger for his stellar performance in the net. Skworchinski’s series-winner was his fourth game-winning goal in as many games in the post season. He leads all CHL players in that category. He scored seven points (6 G, 1 A) in the series and his six goals leads all active scorers in post-season play. The Brahmas went 1 for 7 on the power play. Rio Grande Valley went 1 for 5. The Brahmas will return home tonight for a couple of days of rest before getting ready to host game one of the Southern Conference Championship series next weekend at the NYTEX Sports Centre.
Contact the author at Robert.keith@prohockeynews.com
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