Jacks take series lead

ODESSA, Texas – Intensity and frustration turned up a notch, the Laredo Bucks have seen a 2-0 series lead morph into finding themselves one game away from playoff elimination as they fell to Odessa for the third straight game Saturday night. Odessa’s netminders, Juha Toivonen allowed only one puck to slip by out of 19 fired at him by the Bucks to win his third straight one-goal game in the Southern Conference semi-finals. His nemesis across the ice, Laredo’s Sebastian Centomo, turned away 20 of 22 shots… a performance worthy of a win on most occasions… but tonight garnering only another loss. The game was punctuated with the most penalties of the series, and erupted as the third period closed, when a line-brawl resulted in 46 minutes of penalties being dished out with Laredo’s James Hiebert being tagged as the instigator. Odessa’s Russ Moyer and Laredo’s Brian Swiniarski both received game misconducts in the donnybrook. During the opening period, both teams battled end to end with numerous opportunities but no scoring until Jeff Pierce scored off of a slap shot from the hash mark with 3:10 left in the first period, a mere 30 seconds into the powerplay resulting from a hooking call on the Buck’s Adam Rivet. Laredo was unable to capitalize on two powerplays during the first period. The second period of play was similar, but this time it was Laredo who scored on the Jackalopes’ powerplay, as the Bucks Shawn Snider scored shorthanded at 18:53. Snider picked up a loose puck at center ice and scored on a wrist shot from just inside the slot on a two-on-one break. The goal was Snider’s third of the playoffs, including his second short-handed tally. Adam Rivet was credited with the assist. Early in the third period, Philip Plante would score his first goal of the playoffs, and the game winning goal when he scored from the slot at the 6:38 mark. Game six will be back in Laredo on Tuesday April 7th, with Laredo facing elimination or forcing a game seven.
 
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